Audio: Educational Seminars Conducted for Meat Buyers in the Philippines

Dr. Travis Arp, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) technical services manager, recently conducted a series of educational seminars in the Philippines showcasing the high-quality attributes of U.S. beef and pork.

The Philippines is the largest destination in Southeast Asia for U.S. red meat exports, purchasing more than $100 million in U.S. pork and nearly $60 million in U.S. beef last year. But it is also a fiercely competitive market, making it essential that importers fully understand the benefits U.S. pork and beef deliver for their customers.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, we talk to Travis Arp, USMEF technical services manager, who recently conducted educational seminars for meat buyers in the Philippines. Dr. Arp has more details on the objectives behind the seminar.

Travis Arp: We were working with both importers of beef and pork products, really trying to essentially expand the scope of cuts that these importers might be interested in. On the beef side, it’s a market that does pick up many of the common Asian cuts, like short ribs, short plates, but we’re trying to expose them to some alternative cuts they can use, whether that be for food service, retail, further processing, etc. The Philippines has seen a lot of downward pressure on their ability to buy high-quality short ribs, short plates just simply because those prices, in Asian markets, have been high because they are competing with markets like Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong for those cuts. So we’re trying to identify cuts for them that are going to be a little more comfortable from a price standpoint. On the pork side, we are primarily working with importers of cuts that would go into further processing, and our main objective there is to expose them to quality attributes of U.S. pork, and why it makes a high-quality raw material for further processed products. One consistency of the specification is additional consistency of Ph, consistency of lean points or chemical lean composition - all attributes that really play a role in what makes a high-quality further processed product. And to go along with that, U.S. grain-fed pork, having high-quality flavor, palatability, those are also attributes we put into our messaging.

Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.