U.S. beef exports to Central America have gained momentum in recent months, fueled in part by promotional activities funded by the Beef Checkoff Program. Lucia Ruano, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) representative in Central America, said BBQ Fest Costa Rica is a valuable annual event for the U.S. beef industry because of the positive exposure generated with barbecue enthusiasts and other influencers.
“There were more than 5,500 people that attended this event,” Ruano said. “This is an event that is supported by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, so it makes it international competition. And 24 teams participated in this competition, among them professionals, amateurs, or just people passionate for barbecue. We had two spots in the main stage where we had chefs talking about all the great qualities, the benefits and the attributes of the beef cuts that were promoted in this event.”
Ruano said there’s also a campaign in Honduras that combined bus stop billboard advertising with U.S. beef training workshops for key restaurant staff in the cities of San Pedro, Sula, and Tegucigalpa.
“Along with promotion we also tried to do some education,” Ruano said. “And this is the case of Honduras, where we had these billboard campaigns- bus stop billboards- that were near the stores of our commercial key partner, and we advertised U.S. beef cuts through these billboards. The cuts were outside skirt, coulotte, and strip loin. And simultaneously, we did workshops and we trained staff from a restaurant and there were approximately 95 people that were trained during that period. This took place in the cities of San Pedro Sula, and Tegucigalpa and our importer reported 38% increase of sales during the period of this campaign.”
After a slow start to the year, beef exports to Costa Rica picked up this fall, including a record volume (637 metric tons) in October. January-October exports to Honduras increased 17% from a year ago to 2,122 metric tons and jumped 34% in value to $11.5 million.
For more information, visit usmef.org.
