The U.S. Meat Export Federation is making a leadership change as longtime USMEF Senior Vice President of Asia-Pacific Joel Haggard is stepping into a consultant role with the organization. USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom announced that Jihae Yang, previously the director of South Korea operations, has taken over management of the region as the new vice president.
?Jihae comes with a wealth of background and wealth of experience,? Halstrom said. ?None bigger than her experience of shepherding us through the whole post BSE issue in 2003. Really, she was masterful in her handling of the rebound in the Korean market between 2004 and 2010. She’s extremely well qualified. We welcome Jihae into her no role, and we’re planning to not miss a beat because that region of the world is one of the most important for our exports.?
Yang brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her new role, most notably with her guidance through the discovery of BSE in a U.S. cow in 2003. The return of U.S. beef to the South Korean market brought widespread protests, but under Yang?s leadership, the country in 2022 was the largest buyer of U.S. beef, at $2.7 billion, a new record for any single destination. Yang said she believes there are opportunities to translate the successes from South Korea to other Asian countries, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines.
?[They prefer] high-quality grain fed beef, because they’ve never been exposed to the high-quality beef and they have a good exposure to the Korean style or the Japanese style culture, which includes the barbecue, the Korean barbecue, or Japanese yakiniku culture,? Yang said. ?So, U.S. beef is an essential item for that segment. I see that the great potential to expand our share in the foodservice market especially in Vietnam and the Philippines.?
Haggard will remain as a consultant for USMEF, helping switch to a new consumer focused approach driven by e-commerce and a drive for convenience, particularly in China.
?We’ve had beef access in China since 2017,? Haggard said. ?We’re five years into it, really the last three years has been building the sales channels since the bilateral trade deal. But now we’re going to engage further and try to build the image of the U.S. as the premier grain-fed supplier.?
For more information, visit usmef.org.
