Expanding U.S. Beef's Presence Across Europe

Opportunities for U.S. beef have expanded to some European markets outside the European Union. One example is Croatia, which will soon become the EU’s 28th member. U.S. Meat Export Federation Regional Director John Brooks shares.
Brooks: “Croatia becomes a member of the EU from July 1st. We already has our first U.S. beef promotions in Croatia last December. Croatia has got a nice tourist industry, very, very beautiful coast. And so we’ve got hotels and restaurants ready to take product or already taken product the difference is from the first of July they will have that product duty free as a opposed to having to pay the duty that they have to pay today.”
At this time, U.S. beef has a presence in all 27 countries of the EU. Brooks explains what the opportunities are for countries outside of the EU.
Brooks: “Well Norway is a rich country. They have oil. But Norway has very, very high import duties. You’ll find that there are some very large supermarkets just on the other side of the border in Sweden and a lot of Norwegian number plate cars parked outside of those supermarkets. Awareness of the high quality of U.S. beef in the European Union is spreading beyond the borders and there is interest in the surrounding countries for that product. We are getting interest all the time from smaller countries even places like Kosovo. Then once we go a little bit further we are coming up to Ukraine, Georgia those states.”