With competition becoming fierce in the Middle East, the U.S. Meat Export Fed...

With competition becoming fierce in the Middle East, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is leveraging the rising role of the media to deliver a consistent message about U.S. beef quality and safety to the maximum number of consumers.

“Media shapes the image of any product, so identifying U.S. beef quality advantages and culinary gains in magazines that enter many Arab households is extremely successful in ensuring our messages are accurate and consistent,” said Simon Bakht, USMEF Middle East consultant.

USMEF is teaming up with food editors of popular social and family magazines in the Middle East to deliver U.S. beef recipes and safety information to consumers who are most likely to purchase U.S. beef.

“We meet regularly with food editors of popular magazines to update them with the latest U.S. beef information, recipes and cooking techniques,” Bakht said. “The real return on this investment is the regular appearance of U.S. beef recipes and stories in these magazines.”

Three dishes prepared with high quality U.S. beef steaks, liver and sausages were featured in the March issue of two popular magazines while two recipes were featured in Al Yamamah, a weekly publication cooperating with USMEF for the first time. The versatility of U.S. beef is emphasized in the recipes, reaching approximately 772,500 readers in the Arab world.

USMEF developed a series of seven stories on U.S. beef to complement the recipes and further reinforce the quality and safety message of U.S. beef. One of the stories, identifying U.S. beef as a high quality new taste treat, appeared in Wafaa, a famous monthly magazine with a readership of 710,500.

The article included a mail-back coupon listing four questions to help identify readers’ ideas about U.S. beef quality and safety and their interest in purchasing U.S. beef. Readers who returned coupons received U.S. beef brochures and recipe cards.

Another story about U.S. beef versatility and high quality attributes appeared in the Middle East Food magazine, reaching more than 70,000 decision makers, professionals and experts in food-related fields in the Middle East and North Africa.

U.S. beef and beef variety meat exports to Egypt, the third-largest market so far in 2006, were 9,812 metric tons (mt) valued at $14.6 million through February. This is mostly due to the increasing demand for U.S. beef liver in Egypt.

“Demand for U.S. beef liver has skyrocketed in Egypt,” Bakht said. “One importer wants to increase purchases by 600 metric tons and another wants to start with an order of 10 containers.”

Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are two other expanding Middle Eastern markets. U.S. beef and beef variety meat exports to Kuwait were 358 mt valued at $1.25 million through February, while exports to the UAE were 147 mt valued at $1.08 million.

This growth is expected to continue throughout the year as USMEF activities and programs continue to reach Middle Eastern consumers, who are paying more attention to media and are becoming aware of high quality, safe U.S. beef.

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 –