The U.S. Meat Export Federation was challenged in the fall of 1997 to find a ...

The U.S. Meat Export Federation was challenged in the fall of 1997 to find a way to capitalize on the quality image of U.S. beef and then to market this image to help suppliers move more U.S. beef at stable prices into the Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

To answer this challenge, USMEF staff developed and began to sell hotels and restaurants on the idea of becoming members of the “American Beef Club.” In concept, members committed to serving high quality U.S. beef would be able to take advantage of identity branding that would fully capitalize on U.S. beef’s global image. At the same time, potential customers could easily identify establishments committed to offering genuine U.S. beef.

“High quality” was defined as “beef certified to originate from U.S. cattle of less than 30 months of age which have been fed for at least 100 days on nutritionally balanced, high-energy-feed-content rations containing not less than 70 percent grain and comprising at least 20 pounds total feed per day.” For simplicity, beef graded USDA “prime” or “choice” automatically met the definition.

During the inauguration the American Beef Club’s first EU member a year later, USMEF’s Director for Europe, Russia and the Middle East Richard Ali told media: “Since the first American beefeater clubs were formed in the U.S. over 100 years ago, U.S. beef has been the beef of choice on the discerning diner’s plate. In recognition of this, the American Beef Club has been founded to identify and guarantee both the origin and the quality of the beef served by the worlds’ finest hotels and restaurants.”

The ABC network is built on a foundation of licensed suppliers and distributors who are approved to sell beef to ABC members. While the idea caught hold among Europe’s importers and distributors, U.S.-European trade disputes conspired to limit expansion of the ABC program across most of the EU’s 15 nations.

But that’s not the end of the story.

In the summer of 1998, there was one restaurant in Poland serving U.S. beef – Marriott’s Chicago Grill in Warsaw. Today, there are more than 50 restaurants serving U.S. beef and 48 of them are ABC members. In fact, ABC has enabled the Polish importer to further add value to U.S. beef through its own marketing efforts – important leveraging of the USMEF effort, considering the significant price differential between U.S. and locally-grown beef.

In May of this year, the first Bulgarian importer was registered as an ABC licensed distributor and now supplies four ABC member restaurants. And in June 2001, two Greek shipping companies became the first cruise line ABC members. In addition, there are 16 ABC members in the Middle East and 17 in Russia.

In total, there are 106 member restaurants in twelve countries – 96 of them are outside the EU – and the numbers continue to grow.

“Membership in the American Beef Club enables restaurant customers to easily identify those establishments committed to offering customers genuine U.S. beef,” says Ali. “It also allows restaurants and hotels to differential themselves in an era of growing diner interest.

“The success of the high quality U.S. beef lies in the carefully-controlled feeding regime developed by U.S. feeders,” he notes. “This selected diet helps produce marbled beef, famed the world over for its taste and tenderness.” In addition, USDA’s system of inspection and grading helps to maintain and further enhance consumer confidence in U.S. beef, Ali notes.

“Don’t misunderstand, however, the American Beef Club isn’t just about steaks,” Ali points out. “ABC also is used as a vehicle to introduce new cuts to restaurant members. One of the biggest successes in Poland has been the launch of corn-fed brisket on the menu of many restaurants there. That’s one of the reasons we’ve defined high quality as we have. Our members can use grain-fed U.S. beef from underutilized cuts to reduce their costs, while offering a great eating experience to their customers and adding value for U.S. producers. It’s good for everyone all round.”

The ABC idea has potential in other parts of the world as well, Ali notes. “Right across the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, from Singapore to Shanghai, hoteliers and restaurateurs agree that high quality U.S. beef is the diner’s beef of choice. So there’s no reason to believe that the ABC idea won’t continue to grow.”

In 2000, according to USDA statistics, total U.S. beef exports grew by 12 percent in volume to more than 1.24 million metric tons, while value grew 13 percent to $3.6 billion. Exports now account for nearly 13 percent of U.S. beef production on a wholesale weight basis. To produce this beef, it is estimated that U.S. cattle were fed nearly 204 million bushels of feedgrains and more than 9 million bushes of soy products.

The American Beef Club promotion is funded by beef producers through their national beef checkoff, and their checkoff investment is further leveraged with USDA Foreign Agricultural Service foreign market development funding.

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 --