BOOSTING BEEF EXPORTS A KEY TO MARKET STRENGTH

DENVER (November 30, 1999) -- As Asian countries recover from financial turmoil, U.S. beef exports are showing tremendous strength.  Some of this is a result of beef checkoff-funded efforts to raise awareness of the quality, safety and nutritional value of U.S. beef.

Alan Albright, a farmer/feeder from Lytton, Iowa, and vice chair of the beef industry`s International Markets Committee, said growing exports means a lot to producers in Iowa and around the country.  He said the beef industry`s quality products can compete with high quality Japanese beef such as Kobe beef.

“Beef exports contribute quite a bit in demand for beef,” Albright said.  He said when the Korean financial market collapsed, it cost producers about $30 a head because a drop in the prices of hide and offals.  “Exports are becoming more and more of a factor,” he says.

Stanley Miller, vice president of international sales-Japan for Excel Corp., says the Asian market continues to grow.  “It is getting back to where it was before it fell in 1996,” Miller says, adding that the Japanese market is rebounding after food safety scares in the mid-1990s.  He says checkoff programs administered by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) have contributed to the Asian markets acceptance of U.S. beef.

USMEF’s Nature’s Balance Beef Program in Japan helped get safety facts about beef to the public thereby creating confidence in U.S. beef, according to Miller.  “They can do things as an international trade association that we couldn’t do as an individual company,” Miller says.

U.S. beef exports could experience another record-breaking year in 1999.  The latest available figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that the volume of beef exports (including variety meats) in 1999 was seven percent ahead of last year’s rate at the end of September and beef exports are 11 percent ahead of last year in value.

In 1998, for the first time in the history of the U.S. beef industry, the United States exported in excess of one million metric tons of beef  ¾  a total of 1,022,470 metric tons of beef and beef variety meats.  Japan, South Korea, and Mexico continue to be the main engines of export growth.  With a population of 125 million and the world’s second-largest economy, Japan is the largest single export market for U.S. beef.

"The domestic product is being replaced with chilled beef from the United States," says Miller.  “As our ability to ship chilled beef increases, more will sell.”

Not only are the Japanese consuming more beef, they are insisting that the beef come to them in a more convenient form. Miller says Excel is trying to become more customer-oriented overseas by finding more beef products that are easier for the Japanese to use.

That means export tonnage figures can be deceiving, according to Miller.  “The Japanese want product they don’t have to trim,” he says.  So if packers are trimming more before they ship it overseas, the actual tonnage shipped may be less.  Miller says it is hard to measure tonnage because of the increased trimming.

Through checkoff dollars, USMEF uses a variety of advertising and education campaigns to increase U.S. beef sales in foreign markets and conducts training seminars on how to prepare U.S. beef and handle it safely.  As part of USMEF`s campaign to promote U.S. beef in Korea, USMEF-Korea sponsored advertising in a major daily newspaper as well as provided point of sale materials and tasting demonstrators for U.S. chilled beef promotions.  One 10-day promotion, involving 36 retail outlets nationwide, sold about 500 metric tons of various chilled U.S. beef cuts.

In another example of the benefits of checkoff-funded programs, USMEF opened a successful U.S. Meat Training Facility for Chefs in Southease Asia.  USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service’s Emerging Markets Program and funds from the beef and pork checkoffs helped support the facility, located in Singapore.  The culinary training program at the facility was established to give chefs hands-on experience with a number of select U.S. beef and pork cuts.

USMEF has set its sight on new export records in 1999 and 2000 for U.S. beef and beef variety meats with export goals of 1.101 and 1.186 million metric tons, respectively.

“Achieving these goals will take industry-wide hard work,” said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng, “but we think they are realistic.  Presuming there will be no unforeseen crisis, we expect U.S. beef sales to increase next year in all major export markets.”

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Export promotion programs are funded by the national beef checkoff, which is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (Beef Board).  This 111-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.

Under a contract with the Beef Board, this beef checkoff-funded effort is conducted by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.  The U.S. Meat Export Federation is a non-profit trade association working to identify and develop international markets for U.S. beef, pork, lamb and veal.  Headquartered in Denver, Colo., USMEF maintains a global network of 13 foreign offices and international representatives around the world.