“The leadership of the U.S. pork industry took advantage of a unique chance...
“The leadership of the U.S. pork industry took advantage of a unique chance to see the whole fabric of what the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is doing to promote pork exports to China and Japan,” said USMEF President & CEO Philip Seng about a USMEF-led National Pork Board (NPB) member 12-day trip to both Asian nations.
“It is encouraging that the industry leaders wish to understand the market and the potential and the position of U.S. pork products in both of these very different markets.
The delegation, which comprised the leadership of the NPB, completed five days of market visits and meetings in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing, China on January 14 before heading to Japan.
In China, the group met U.S. pork importers, restaurant operators featuring U.S. pork, Chinese pork processors and distributors, and Chinese government officials involved in meat safety. NPB members also met with USDA officials in all three cities, as well as representatives of China’s own hog-raising industry in an effort to deepen industry understanding of China’s growing integration into world pork markets, and how the U.S. industry can further benefit from that integration.
“Our trip to China was an outstanding opportunity to become more aware of opportunities and challenges that the China market presents,” commented Dave Culbertson, President of the NPB and delegation leader.
Culbertson added, “Exports have been a growing priority for the U.S. pork industry in recent years, and our in-depth meetings and observations here allow us to better assess the growing influence of China in the world pork market. We will continue to see China as a key emerging market for our products.”
“Since China joined the world community of trading nations — the World Trade Organization (WTO) — and is now abiding by world trading rules, we have to see it as a high-growth market,” said Seng. “China’s progress has been prodigious, often leaping over intermediate technologies to spring from the past into the present. In the case of pork, the future is centered on branded products, since this is how discerning Chinese buyers ensure a safe product in a country of massive pork production and wet-market sales.”
Seng noted that though he believes the potential for U.S. pork exports to China is immense: “The USMEF presence in Hong Kong since 1988 and China since 1995 is essential. This strong, established presence in the market is key to expanding sales, building on our trading relationships and our market access work.”
it was instructive for the team to compare and contrast what USMEF is doing in China with Japan: “In Japan the team saw a more developed market, which is consumer-driven, much more interested in valued-added items, and where quality is a byword,” said Seng. “In U.S. supermarkets we see little but U.S. pork products. In Japan, the United States competes with at least 20 other nations. You have to actually go there and see how it works, see our products in place.”
The group, which was accompanied by USMEF vice presidents Joel Haggard and Richard Fritz, returned to the United States on Wednesday (Jan. 19).
In the first 11 months of 2004, the United States exported 73,283 metric tons of pork and pork variety meat (a 47 percent increase) valued at $82.3 million to China and Hong Kong. This breaks the record set in 2001 — 57,759 metric tons for the whole year, a trend which is evident in worldwide U.S. pork exports: Although December statistics are not yet in, U.S. pork exports to countries around the world totaled $2.015 billion in the first 11 months of the year, which is almost half a billion dollars more than the value of U.S. pork exported in the whole of 2003, and the volume of U.S. worldwide pork exports exceeded the previous record for the 14th straight year — 928,693 mt for Jan.-Nov. 2004.
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 –