The taste of tender, juicy U.S. beef left a lasting impression with consumers...

The taste of tender, juicy U.S. beef left a lasting impression with consumers at restaurants and supermarkets conducting promotions in Taiwan last month, sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

At the Evergreen Tainan Hotel, a USA Select Steak Promotion conducted with USMEF left consumers wanting more. “Consumers love the taste of U.S. beef. We are considering prolonging our promotion,” said Christine Yang, a marketing specialist for Evergreen Tainan Hotel.

Located in Tainan City, the fourth largest city in Taiwan, the Evergreen is one of city’s newest hotels, and benefits from the large number of people who travel to the nearby science-based industry park for business.

Meanwhile, Lawry’s restaurant in Taipei is using the U.S. beef advertising slogan, “U.S. beef prime rib – a taste worth waiting for,” to alert customers that the restaurant once again features U.S. beef.

“We had changed our beef to Australian, but our customers complained the taste was different,” said Joyce Sun, general manger of Lawry’s in Taipei. “Many of them told us that they wouldn’t come back until we changed our menu back to U.S. beef.”

Lawry’s was originally founded 48 years ago in Beverly Hills, Calif., and opened its Taipei restaurant four years ago. Lawry’s is famous for its prime rib, and its founder designed silver carts so the beef could be carved at tableside.

USMEF worked with large retailer Carrefour to enhance consumer excitement using a United Steak promotion, giving U.S. beef consumers a chance to win prizes. Consumers who bought U.S. beef at Carrefour stores last month could use the entry form affixed to U.S. beef packages to enter a prize drawing.

Carrefour improved the U.S beef layout in its 34 branches during the promotion and offered a 20 percent discount on boneless short rib, top blade, rib finger and shank.

After this activity, Carrefour indicated that U.S. beef is outselling Australian beef, and it will feature a U.S. beef promotion on a monthly basis.

To reinforce the familiarity with U.S. beef and to emphasize its safety, USMEF held many in-store tasting activities at Sinon supermarkets and explained to consumers the procedures undertaken to ensure U.S. beef is safe to eat.

Sinon, the largest supermarket chain in Taiwan, is featuring U.S. beef top blade, short rib, shank, chuck flap tail and pastrami. Sinon has rearranged the U.S. beef case to draw consumer attention to it. Results have been positive since the promotion started March 17.

USMEF conducted an education seminar at Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi in early March to introduce U.S. beef to that area. U.S. beef has not been promoted widely in eastern Taiwan because of transportation difficulty and lack of tourism development.

The Taiwan government has been planning, developing and improving the transportation from Western to Eastern Taiwan for the past 10 years. The first cross-country highway will be finished by the end of this year and will bring more tourists to Eastern Taiwan, estimated to increase by at least 30 percent in the first 5 years.

The tourism development will also increase U.S. beef sales in the region. “U.S. beef sales will have at least a 10 percent annual growth after the highway is finished,” said Wang Ming-Da, sales manager of Shu-Shen Co., Ltd. The seminar attracted at least 60 chefs and operators of hotels and restaurants in the area.

Shipments of U.S. beef started arriving in Taiwan in late February. They were the first since June, when Taiwan banned U.S. beef after the announcement of a second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United States.

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, lamb, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –