With support from USDA, the Beef Checkoff Program and the Texas Beef Council, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) promoted U.S. beef at Gulfood, one of the world?s largest food trade shows. The event was held Feb. 20-24 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. USMEF CEO Dan Halstrom said this year’s Gulfood may have been the largest ever.
“Gulfood Show was the second year back from COVID,” Halstrom said. “But this year was extremely busy, more than back to normal. In fact, I think when the final stats are out, it’ll be record attendance. Estimates were that in five days, it’d be over 100,000 people in attendance and it was quite impressive, as busy as I’ve ever seen it. While based in Dubai and centered around the Middle East region, it’s certainly not limited to that. In fact, I would say it’s in fact a global food show. We had a lot of buyers, a lot of interest around the continent of Africa, buyers from Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, the list goes on. Also, you know, Asia, quite a few Chinese buyers there, and a few from other parts of Asia as well.”
A wide range of U.S. beef products are promoted at Gulfood, with some markets focused on center-of-the-plate cuts for foodservice clientele, while others are seeking beef variety meat items. Halstrom noted that, in some countries in the Middle East and Africa, initial sales of beef variety meat often lead to expanded demand for beef muscle cuts, serving as a gateway to higher end cuts.
“The whole world sells into the Middle East region, so it’s the whole range,” Halstrom said. “It’s Indian buffalo meat, it’s grass-fed products from Brazil and other places, but it’s not too crowded of a space for high quality grain-fed. We’re not appealing to every customer in the region by any means. We’re appealing to that demographic that could afford the higher quality of U.S. grain-fed beef, but there’s definitely a growing sector for that. On the food service side, demand was absolutely booming in certain parts of the Middle East, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait to some extent, and most definitely Saudi Arabia. Of course, in the back of our mind strategically beef variety meats are a good lead in to the relationships with these buyers with the ultimate goal being to expand into muscle cuts if they’re not already using them. And that’s really was the theme in the show this year was, let’s talk a little bit about your current business, but what about expanding that portfolio? It was quite well received.”
According to USDA data compiled by USMEF, beef and beef variety meat exports to the Middle East region totaled more than 66,000 metric tons last year, up 3% from 2021, while value jumped 34% to $297 million. Egypt is the largest destination for U.S. beef livers ? not only in the Middle East region, but globally. The leading markets in the region for beef muscle cuts are the U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
For more information, visit usmef.org.
