Japanese Beef Buyers Tour US Beef Operations

A team of Japanese beef importers recently visited the United States to learn about US beef production practices. Jay Theiler, Executive Vice President of Corporate affairs for agri beef and the US Meat Export Federation's current chair elect hosted the team for a tour of the True West beef processing facility in Idaho.

“We had about a dozen buyers that represented four of the major beef important companies in Japan, and come to visit us here in Idaho. We had the great opportunity to show them all the steps in the beef supply chain, starting with ranching, going to a ranch operation and then a feed yard agri beefs feed yard out in Parma, Idaho, and then we took them to the producer owned plant, True West beef in Jerome, Idaho, and showed them that. So they really got to see a good overview of all the steps in our US beef supply chain, and see the focus that we put on quality. The buyers are able to see one of the newest plants in the United States, this true west beef plant in Jerome, Idaho, opened in June of 2023 so it's a good example of the new facility, and it's a plant that is also partially owned by producers here in the Northwest. That's a little bit different for the Japanese to see a model- It's a little bit different.”

The Japanese importers also toured the National Beef processing facility in Dodge City, Kansas, all in an effort to build trade relations with Japan.