Pacific Northwest Initiative Helps to Sell U.S. Beef in Japanese Regional Grocery Stores

The Pacific Northwest Initiative is a partnership between the three Pacific Northwest Beef commissions and Councils, the U.S. Meat Export Federation to promote and sell U.S. beef to regional Japanese grocery chains that hadn't been using US. beef prior to this intuitive which began four years ago.

U.S. Meat Export Federation's International Marketing and Programs Assistant Vice President Greg Hanes shares more about a unique marketing opportunity for U.S. beef in Japan.

Hanes: "So far the progress has been very positive. Big successes in moving out the competitor's products. You've seen some of these chains increase from maybe 5 percent to now selling 40 to 50 percent of their beef as U.S. beef — so big, big impact there. These chains are contributing as well so if you look at the money they are putting into the promotion of this. That $25,000 from each state has grown into a very hard number of nearly $300,000. So a big impact even though it may seems like a small initial investment by leveraging with each other, and with our buyers in Japan, and with USMEF, the impact in the market is very big."

Hanes says the main objective is to partner with targeted Japanese distributors and their regional stores and retail customers to first introduce, then build loyalty to and grow sales of U.S. beef, especially beef from the plants in the Pacific Northwest.