Anuga Reveals Opportunities for U.S. Beef and Pork in European Markets

The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently participated in Anuga (pronounced uh-new-guh), a biennial food trade show held in Cologne, Germany that attracts importers, exporters and food industry companies from more than 100 countries. While the overall focus of this year’s show was on new products and innovation, USMEF expanded its strategy during the five-day event to identify opportunities for U.S. beef and pork in Europe and surrounding markets. USMEF’s participation was possible through support from the USDA Market Access Program (MAP) and member companies taking part in Anuga.

Dan Halstrom, USMEF president, explains that Anuga is an ideal venue for the U.S. beef and pork industries to check in on competitors in what has become a fast-growing global marketplace for red meat. Although Anuga is highly concentrated on trade opportunities in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, influences from Japan, Korea, China and Latin America were also quite noticeable.

At this year’s Anuga, USMEF was able to take advantage of the diverse audience, educating buyers from some of the new and emerging markets around the world through face-to-face meetings and tastings of U.S. beef and pork. Discussions with buyers and importers revealed that demand for U.S. red meat products remains high, despite ongoing challenges with pricing and trade issues.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ralph Loos: The U.S. Meat Export Federation recently participated in Anuga, a biennial event held in Cologne, Germany that this year attracted 165,000 visitors. In this USMEF report, President Dan Halstrom explains why Anuga is an important arena for showcasing U.S. beef and pork to the European Union and surrounding markets.

Dan Halstrom: It’s truly a global food show, of course highly concentrated on the European production and European opportunities, Russia, the Middle East, etc., but you also saw quite a bit of influence from Japan, Korea, China, as well as Latin America, so really it has evolved over the years into a global food show. One of the U.S.’s largest opportunities in the EU market, which was really on display at the Anuga food show, was the U.S. beef business. We have a very high-end niche business into the EU with high-quality, grain-fed beef from the U.S. It’s also some of the most expensive beef that comes into Europe, but there is a demand that’s growing.

Ralph Loos: Halstrom pointed out that the European event also allowed USMEF to gauge competition to U.S. beef and pork.

Dan Halstrom: Whether it be beef or pork, there was very extreme examples of our competitors. On the beef side, of course Australians were there in force, you had the Irish beef, the Scottish beef in force, you had South American beef in force, so we’re not the only ones to figure out the opportunities in the global trade scenario as it relates to international business. Same thing on the pork side, very strong influence form the Europeans on the pork side, be it German pork, be it Spanish pork, etc. Overall, the Anuga experience was a very good display of not only the competition but of the opportunities going forward.

Ralph Loos: For more information, please visit usmef.org For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Ralph Loos.