The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently hosted a trade seminar in Shanghai aimed at showcasing the value and versatility offered by U.S. beef and pork cuts when used in home meal replacement and restaurant meal replacement items. These products are gaining popularity among Chinese consumers seeking convenient, high-quality meals that require little preparation.
USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom participated in the seminar, which was attended by more than 250 importers, distributors, processors, and other prospective customers. Halstrom said the products demonstrated at the event included beef jerky items derived from U.S. round cuts and meals featuring U.S. pork loin as the center-of-the-plate entrée.
“Just some options both for retail, brick-and-mortar store business as well as the online, e-commerce business for delivery,” Halstrom said. “Some of the items we showed, for example, was the jerky meat made from outside round on the beef side. And on the loin side, we showed some center-of-the-plate pork loin options for meal kits. And all this was designed for satisfying that demand on the convenience side.”
Halstrom added that he received extremely positive feedback from attendees of the seminar, which was made possible through support from USDA, the Beef Checkoff Program, the National Pork Board, and the United Soybean Board.
“As compared to pre-COVID, in China the consumer is much more conservative. There’s still a concern on the sickness front with COVID. So yes, I think there will be a tendency, at least in the short to medium term, to continue to consume a higher percentage of meals at home versus out in the restaurants I would estimate that that would change over time or shift a bit. But no doubt that’s an opportunity today. And that was part of the reason for the seminar, was to give the trade some of these ideas on value-added options, be it in-store HMR options or even online options, e-commerce options, to deliver at home some of these meal kits and restaurant meal replacement options. And the feedback from the attendees was very positive about some of these ideas.”
For more information, visit usmef.org.
