Since mothers work tirelessly to provide healthy and hearty meals to their fa...
Since mothers work tirelessly to provide healthy and hearty meals to their families, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) sends a warm thank-you to mothers in Mexico with an evening of entertainment.
Mothers who purchased U.S. beef and pork at local supermarkets in Mexico could collect points from coupons on the meat packages and exchange 15 points for tickets to the Mother’s Day celebration planned for Sunday, May 1 at the renowned Metropolitan Theater in Mexico City.
The event will feature the Mexican debut of Off Broadway Cooking, a group of cooks who use cooking instruments to make music. USMEF will also present U.S. meat nutritional information and conduct cooking demonstrations.
With less than a week left in the promotion period, 90 percent of 2,000 event tickets have been snapped up. This is the third year USMEF has conducted a Mother’s Day promotion, using beef and pork checkoff dollars, to honor matriarchs while also developing recognition of U.S. beef and pork and boosting sales by as much as 42 percent in past years.
Radio advertisements introduce the promotion while in-store announcements, banners and tasting demonstrations entice mothers and other shoppers to purchase U.S. meat. USMEF is working with leading Mexican retailers Gigante and Comercial Mexicana to promote and highlight new U.S. meat cuts. For example, Gigante reports a new U.S. pork cut called bisteck, picked for its versatility and quick cooking time, is gaining in popularity.
Mexico is an important market for U.S. meat and grain producers as it was the top destination for U.S. beef and pork in 2004. After banning U.S. beef in December 2003 due to a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the United States, Mexico reopened in March 2004 to U.S. boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age.
Last year, U.S. beef and beef variety meat exports to Mexico totaled 197,617 mt in volume and $566 million in value. In the first two months of this year, the United States has exported 40,292 mt of beef and beef variety meat to Mexico valued at $125 million.
Mexico led U.S. pork export volume to a 14th-consecutive record setting year in 2004. Over 361,000 mt of U.S. pork and pork variety meat were exported to Mexico last year valued at $567 million. So far this year, the United States has exported 52,071 mt of pork and pork variety meat valued at $82 million, a 17 percent increase from the same period last year.
To keep U.S. pork exports to Mexico on the upswing, USMEF hosted a media team visit to Iowa State University. The team learned about U.S. pork safety, nutrition and quality to pass that knowledge back to Mexican consumers.
The team also toured a pork farm, a livestock production facility and a supermarket to understand how U.S. pork is produced from start to finish. This results in credible translations of the U.S. pork story that delivers the message to Mexican consumers that U.S. pork is healthy, safe and can be purchased with confidence. The media events were partially funded by soybean and pork checkoff dollars.
“I was in Mexico recently and was encouraged by the opportunities for U.S. pork,” said Gene Ver Steeg, president-elect, Iowa Pork Producers Association. “I am excited the media team from Mexico visited Iowa to see the quality and safety of U.S. pork.”
Following their visit to Iowa, the media team traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the World Pork Congress and be briefed by USDA representatives on the U.S. safety and inspection system.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.
– USMEF –