Weekly USMEF Audio Report: Soybean Execs Discuss Industry’s Aggressive Investment in Pork Exports ...
Feb. 8, 2010 - Soybean producers recently underwrote an aggressive USMEF initiative to bolster U.S. pork exports in an effort to help improve the economic outlook for one of its most valuable customers, the U.S. pork industry. Soybean organizations from Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as the United Soybean Board, stepped up to the plate with an additional $1.35 million in checkoff funding to support USMEF’s pork marketing programs in the key international markets of Japan, Mexico and South Korea.
The Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council (MSR&PC) got the ball rolling by investing an additional $800,000 toward USMEF promotions in Japan and Mexico during late 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. The Nebraska Soybean Board soon stepped forward with a commitment of $200,000 toward the same Japan/Mexico effort. The “Pork Stimulus Package” gained further momentum when the United Soybean Board (USB) invested $250,000 in pork marketing programs in South Korea and the South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council made an additional investment of $100,000. The purchasing power of the $1.35 million soybean industry investment will actually approach $4 million, because USMEF is able to use these funds to leverage support other, non-checkoff sources.
In this audio report, United Soybean Board Chief Executive Officer John Becherer and MSR&PC Executive Director Jim Palmer discuss the reasoning behind the soybean industry’s additional funding for pork exports, and why the producers who lead these organizations consider it a very worthwhile investment of their soybean checkoff dollars.
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The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) 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 and soybean checkoff programs.
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