Meat Export Meeting

Meat Export Meeting. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation Board of Directors Meeting and Product Showcase is being held this week in New Orleans and runs through Friday. USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng says the meeting will allow producers, exporters and other meat industry leaders in attendance to hear from USMEF’s international directors about market conditions and challenges in key destinations for U.S. beef, pork and lamb.

SENG: One of the challenges we have this year of course is trying to repeat the record breaking performance that we had in 2011. There’s many issues out there we’ve had to deal with and of course this meeting is all about addressing the issues that are prevailing. Also there’s a product showcase where were bringing well over 100 people from different countries to look at our products, to interface with our export industry

He adds that the visiting teams of foreign buyers will learn more about U.S. meat products – including production, processing, shipping and merchandising.

SENG: All these teams will have been traveling throughout the midwest and throughout the United States frankly looking at plants, looking at production facilities so they can understand the total fabric of our whole production infrastructure. What we’re seeing internationally is a much more acute interest in how we produce the product, where it’s produced and all the methodologies that are involved in that process.

Seng says they really feel that they have a great story to tell.

SENG: And that’s what this whole showcase is all about. It’s a rare opportunity where producers can come in and actually have major buyers from all over the world looking at products ranging from muscle meats to variety meats to the whole product mix. It’s very exciting and it’s also a very effective way of relating to the international markets. And it gives a great opportunity for producers to observe it.

And he says that farmers and ranchers have made an important investment in international marketing through their checkoff programs, and this meeting offers an opportunity to learn more about how this support is used to grow international demand for their products.

SENG: They can hear firsthand how these dollars are being used and they can hear from our overseas offices. Our directors from all these offices will all be assembled here but also it’s an opportunity for them to ask questions, to have input. One thing about the USMEF meetings, you have everybody from the buyer to the producer and everybody in between and we welcome input, we welcome as much input as we can possibly get from all sources both internationally as well as domestically.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.