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Audio: First Meat Buyers Seminar and Showcase Set to Open in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published: Sep 22, 2015
00:00 / 00:00

You may download the audio file here




The U.S. Meat Export Federation’s (USMEF) first meat buyers seminar and showcase in Sub-Saharan Africa is being held this week in Accra, Ghana. It was organized as part of an ongoing effort to increase exports of U.S. red meat to this rapidly developing region. Dan Halstrom, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) senior vice president of marketing, says the seminar and showcase will include a cross-section of buyers from several of the region’s fastest-growing population centers – including Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Angola – providing an ideal setting for buyers and sellers to meet and discuss business opportunities. Among the topics that will be covered in the seminar are livestock production practices, slaughter plant processes, food safety and the importance of proper cold chain management. Although a majority of consumers in Sun-Saharan Africa rely on wet market settings to purchase food, Halstrom notes that there is a rapidly growing and surprisingly sophisticated retail segment in the region, which is an encouraging sign for future meat trade.


TRANSCRIPT:

Ralph Loos: In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, we speak with Senior Vice President of Marketing Dan Halstrom, who is in Ghana this week for the first USMEF meat buyers seminar and showcase. Halstrom talks about the event’s origins and the why Sub-Saharan Africa has great potential as a market for U.S. beef and pork.

Dan Halstrom: We’re starting to bits and pieces in terms of beef and pork being exported into the West Africa region, probably led by markets like Ghana and Angola, although Congo and Gabon and Benin are some other markets that have been importing our products. But the real issue is that it’s become a gateway, a legitimate market for poultry, U.S. poultry, and the whole hypothesis here is where poultry goes initially, as these economies develop, pork and beef will come eventually. So in 2014 we put a white paper together, kind of identifying the state of play as it sits today, and then more importantly, what are the indicating factors as far as potential in the future. Now, that’s a very small sector that can afford that today, but very quickly we’re seeing that shift from traditional wet markets to more modern retail in a lot of these countries.

Ralph Loos: Halstom says the region’s growing development is resulting in a shift in consumers’ habits, which could mean future demand for U.S. food products, such as beef and pork.

Dan Halstrom: It’s developing very quickly, so if 5 percent of the population could afford to shop in modern retail today, maybe next year it might be 6 percent, and the next year it might be 8 – there’s going to be dramatic growth and there will be a shift like there always is in developing countries, so this is what we’re really trying to prepare for because there is a certain level of sophistication, and at least on a small scale it’s there already.

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