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Cattlemen’s Beef Board Chair and CEO Offer Observations from Asia

Published: Jun 04, 2018
00:00 / 00:00

You may download the audio file here




Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) officials, along with beef producers and other industry leaders from Colorado, Minnesota and Texas, recently joined the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), a contractor to the beef checkoff, in China and Japan to participate in promotional activities for U.S. beef, meet with prospective buyers and other meat industry representatives and gather ideas for market development in these two countries.

CBB Chair Joan Ruskamp, a cattle producer from Dodge, Nebraska, and CEO Scott Stuart were both first-time visitors to China and Japan. They share their impressions of these two markets in the attached audio report.

If you have questions, please email Joe Schuele or call 303-226-7309. You may also contact CBB Communications Manager Maggie Henton.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: Cattlemen's Beef Board Chair Joan Ruskamp and CEO Scott Stuart travelled to China and Japan with the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, to take part in market development activities for U.S. beef. Ruscamp, a cattle producer from Dodge, Nebraska, offers her observations in this USMEF report:

Joan Ruskamp: I had not been either to China or Japan. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go. So in China, there's a lot of hard work happening, a lot of relationship building, a lot of trust building with folks there who will use our products. And in Japan we got to see that reward paid off that USMEF was doing 20 or 30 years ago and the steps that it took and what a relationship we have already with the Japanese and hopefully with China in new ways that we can do business together and promote our products so once we're a reliable source of that beef that will help tremendously. Watching our USMEF representatives interact at the Embassy level, at leadership level with Chinese industry leaders, the retailers — I mean, I've always respected the reports I've heard from USMEF and the activities. When you get to go and see this firsthand and really see our men and women in action, so to say, I have profound respect for all of them.

Joe Schuele: Stuart also found his experience in both markets to be very positive:

Scott Stuart: Both the trip to Beijing and Tokyo were just fascinating to me. I was very impressed with both countries and their people, and we were made to feel very welcome. The Chinese market, being a very young market for U.S. beef, it's interesting to see the excitement of those importers now that U.S. beef is becoming more available. Conversely, when you look at Japan, which is our largest export market for U.S. beef, the way that it's been accepted and embraced is just phenomenal. It was really interesting and very satisfying to see the amount of work that the U.S. Meat Export Federation has done in those areas and just the quality and devotion of the staff. Just a great experience to get to know those folks and know that they're working so very hard as a contractor to the Beef Checkoff. The American cattlemen should feel very, very good about that.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.

# # # The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean checkoff programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors: beef/veal producing & feeding, pork producing & feeding, lamb producing & feeding, packing & processing, purveying & trading, oilseeds producing, feedgrains producing, farm organizations and supply & service organizations.