USMEF Recaps The Past Year As Difficult For U.S. Beef, But Strong For U.S. Pork...
Although the past year has been one of the most difficult faced by the U.S. beef industry, the pork industry has enjoyed a 32 percent year-to-date increase in exports, U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng told members at the federation’s Board of Directors Strategic Planning and Marketing Conference Nov. 3-5 in Albuquerque, N.M..
When selling U.S. products internationally, Seng noted, “Countries have different circumstances, issues and politics. If we are not cognizant of those differences, we are doomed to failure.”
Many international markets closed to U.S. beef due to a single case of BSE reported in Washington State last December, resulting in a 78 percent loss in quantity of beef and beef variety meat exports and an 82 percent loss in value. The “shared vision,” or joint agreement, reached between the United States and Japan in late October is the first step in reopening the Japan market as well as other markets, Seng noted.
Seng said if we achieve “meaningful beef export access to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Hong Kong and China … we will have 98 percent of our export trade reopened.” He noted through the ups and downs of the past 11 months, USMEF “continues to move forward by providing intelligence to industry leaders, acting on cultural differences that affect consumers and researching new markets.”
As markets begin to reopen, it will take work for the United States to regain its market share. Seng noted that USMEF will continue to provide education to consumers to regain their confidence in U.S. beef, in addition to hosting trade teams traveling to the United States to view safety measures firsthand. A similar program was used last March in Mexico prior to the government partially opening its market to U.S. beef.
USMEF provides technical and scientific information along with economic and trade information to industry leaders negotiating trade with international markets.
“In negotiations, divisions [between governments] alienate trade and alienate the consumer,” Seng said. “The role of the consumer is dramatic. Consumer confidence is up when they believe in the product. We work to maintain that consumer confidence.”
Seng noted that despite the potential diversions of beef bans, USMEF international offices continued to promote pork in key markets, such as Japan, Mexico and Korea, by appealing to what USMEF research indicates are the consumer preferences for the taste, texture and color of U.S. pork.
For example, USMEF uses a pork caravan that travels to retail stores to promote the quality, taste and safety of U.S. pork in Japan. Stores visited by the caravan had sales as much as five times greater than stores not visited by the caravan. U.S. chilled pork exports to Japan have increased 12 percent through September of this year.
“The U.S. is delivering a safe pork product,” Seng said. “USMEF has worked aggressively on health and sanitary issues to get U.S. pork into the market.” Pork exports increased 11 percent globally, but U.S. pork exports are up three times that amount at 32 percent.
And Seng noted that USMEF is looking at new markets for U.S. meat. “The Middle East economy is in the best of times now and imports are hot,” Seng said. The Middle East imports 90 percent of the beef it consumes with high quality and value-added meat products in demand due to expansion in Western supermarkets and restaurants. The Middle East also imports 80 percent of its beef livers from the United States.
“But the big apple could be the European Union, which had a beef deficit last year that is expected to rise to 500,000 metric tons in the next few years,” Seng said.
He noted that the European Union is the world’s most affluent trading block and that it has a dwindling beef supply due to agriculture policy reform driving down production and a loss of consumer confidence due to BSE, making it dependent on imports. In Eastern Europe, U.S. pork (including variety meat) exports to Romania have increased 309 percent in volume to 4,476 metric tons and 572 percent in value to $6.9 million through September.
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 –