4-3 IAN Beef Exports

A chat with Traci Bracco, Executive Director of the Idaho Beef Council about exports. "I thought we would talk a little bit about our export market. There are a lot of human beings at the global dinner table, in fact 96% of the world's population resides outside of the United States. For those of us in the beef industry the greatest opportunity for increasing beef demand is with our foreign markets. It is for these reasons that the Idaho Beef Council partners with the US Meat Exports Federation in order to strategically target our export markets and grow beef demand. US Meat Exports Federation is a nonprofit trade association that works on our behalf here in the beef industry to create international market opportunities for US beef. They do this by demonstrating its profit potential, its quality and its versatility through education programs and promotions in more than 80 countries overseas. We provide funds as part of our Idaho checkoff dollars to USMEF for them to target and market beef overseas. So each year we allocate a portion of our Idaho checkoff dollars. Last year we sent $130,000 and this year we are targeting to do about that same amount to promote beef in the global marketplace. Exports are hot right now, all the markets are up over 2013 levels which is great news for our cattle ranchers since this means more to them when they go to sell an animal.