SUMMER VEAL PROMOTIONS HELP HEAT UP DEMAND

CHICAGO, Ill., (September 11, 1997) -- Summer promotions with major retailers have helped stimulate demand for veal during what is traditionally a slow time for veal sales. The checkoff-funded promotions are one factor in a supply and demand situation that has pushed veal prices to their highest levels in nearly two years.

"The Veal Committee decided to make a special promotional effort during the summer because that's usually a time of lower demand and prices for veal," said Carl Blackwell, director of veal promotions for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "Our promotions focused on veal as an option for the grill, since summertime is grilling season," he said.

The promotions were conducted at more than 2,000 stores of the largest grocery retail chains in the Northeast and the West Coast. Newspaper advertisements were placed in the New York Times, Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times. In-store veal preparation demonstrations were conducted in more than 600 stores in exchange for retailers' commitments of special veal sale prices in their own advertising.

"That special pricing is very important because we typically observe that veal sales can increase as much as five times when special feature prices are available to consumers," said Blackwell. A total of twenty advertisements were placed in publications with a combined per- ad circulation of 2.5 million.

In late summer, veal prices reached near two-year highs, the result of a tight supply and increased promotion through the checkoff program and private companies. Prices received by producers in late August were well over $200 per hundredweight.

Initiated in 1898, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is the marketing organization and trade association for America’s one million cattle farmers and ranchers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.