Beef producers from across the nation will gather in San Diego this week for the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meetings. One key focus of the conference will be industry efforts to bolster global demand for U.S. beef. These efforts are funded in part by the Beef Checkoff Program and USDA market development programs.
U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom said the Beef Checkoff International Marketing Committee will receive updates from USMEF on promotional activities for U.S. beef and committee members will help establish marketing priorities for the coming year.
?That’s really a focus for USMEF, and albeit his meeting is not as big as the winter meeting, it’s still an opportune time for USMEF to connect with producers across the country, and really to give them an update on what’s going on in the international marketplace,? Halstrom said. ?Another focus for this meeting is to present at the International Marketing Committee Meeting. It’s an excellent chance to sit down with the committee, not only to give an update on what’s going on internationally, but really work on prioritization as we go into the budget time later this year with the operating committee. So, it’s a good opportunity to sit down and update but also to brainstorm on where the focuses should be and what specific strategies to increase the value of beef should be followed.?
Halstrom added that producers are especially interested in building international demand for underutilized beef cuts and variety meat, which helps maximize carcass value.
?One of the key themes that we talk about with our producers at these meetings, and we follow every day, is maximizing the value of the carcass,? Halstrom said. ?It’s not only focused on things like chuck rolls and short plates and things like this, but we’re also focused upon secondary cuts. So how do we move more round primal meat into some of these Asian markets, for example, which happens to be one of our strategies. How do we move more beef variety meats into these markets? You know, our record exports a year ago were more than 10% of that was variety meats. So really, most of the variety meats are consumed outside the U.S. So, this is an opportunity to really talk about how we’re focused on the entire carcass and bringing back the maximum amount of value to the U.S. beef production chain.?
For more information, visit usmef.org.
