The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) a...

The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Meat New Zealand are joining forces to boost the image and consumption of beef in Taiwan.

The so-called “Beef Alliance” project will be launched in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung Tuesday, April 2, with an educational campaign designed to highlight the nutritional benefits of eating beef.

According to USMEF Vice President Asia-Pacific Joel Haggard, beef consumption is relatively low in Taiwan and there is a significant opportunity to increase it.

“Beef is not the preferred meat product in this market. Chinese consumers, however, traditionally focus on nutrition and we believe this campaign will assist in confronting the resistance to consumption of beef,” Haggard said.

He noted that consumer research indicates ethnic Chinese in Taiwan rated iron and other essential nutrients as important, but did not link these to eating beef. The campaign will highlight the nutritional benefits of beef, particularly the link between iron and brain development in children.

“We are breaking new ground with this project,” Haggard noted. “To my knowledge, this is the first time we have cooperated with a competitor on a major marketing activity, and it’s probably the first time we've promoted beef overseas in a generic fashion.”

The campaign will primarily include advertising on television and radio with supportive educational materials distributed in restaurants, supermarkets and wet markets. Haggard adds, “At the grass roots, all market participants will continue to carry on their respective country-of-origin promotions as usual.

“By joining our resources with MLA and Meat New Zealand,” said Haggard, “we are able to conduct a larger campaign and grow the market as a whole. In this market, we see our competitors as domestic pork, chicken and seafood, rather than other beef-supplying countries.”

The project’s local scope – Taiwan’s major southern city – is designed to test the ability of generic approaches to boost overall beef consumption. “To measure this project’s impact, we will evaluate sales from restaurants, supermarkets, traditional markets and their distributors,” according to Haggard.

In 2001, according to revised USDA statistics, total U.S. beef exports declined in volume by .4 percent to 1.274 million metric tons, while value declined by 5.7 percent to $ 3.406 billion. Higher U.S. beef prices and a strong U.S. dollar helped push export volumes slightly lower for the first time in more than 10 years. Exports now account for nearly 13 percent of U.S. beef production on a wholesale weight basis.

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 --