NAFB News Service Previews USMEF Spring Conference

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) News Service has distributed a preview of the upcoming USMEF Spring Conference, featuring an interview with USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom. The interview is available for download using the "Click to Play" link, and the outline is as follows:

Audio with Dan Halstrom, USMEF President and CEO

Suggested lead: Next week’s U.S. Meat Export Federation spring conference will host an in-depth discussion on the global impact of African swine fever. USMEF will host it’s annual spring conference in Kansas City, Missouri, May 22 through 24.

Dan Halstrom, USMEF President and CEO, says the opening session features keynote speaker Peter Ziehan (Zye-unn) on what makes trade work and what makes trade NOT work…tape

Cut #1 :21 OC:…”off on Wednesday.”

“He’s the author of two books, The Accidental Superpower and the Absent Superpower, and really looks at different aspects of the global trading system and what characteristics make it work, and other characteristics or maybe lack of some characteristic where it doesn’t work. I’ve heard him speak before and really this will be one of the highlights of the conference, having him kick it off on Wednesday.” On day two, USMEF welcomes Ted McKinney, USDA under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs…tape

Cut #2 :17 OC…”update interesting.”

“He’s an advocate for ag in general, but very familiar with USMEF, as prior to USDA he was a member of USMEF. So, he really has familiarity with our U.S. beef, pork and lamb sectors and knows the trade issues well. So, I think our membership will really find his update interesting.”

The African swine fever panel discussion, planned for Friday, will feature industry experts who can speak on the global impact African swine fever is having on all sectors, starting with Dr. Dave Pyburn, senior vice president of science and technology for the National Pork Board…tape

Cut #3 :37 OC:…”the membership.”

“Dr. Pyburn, who is going to kick off the panel, is going to talk about what the disease is and what it isn’t. And he’s also going to talk about the efforts to protect the North American Market. So, I think that’s issue number one. Issue number two is starting to understand the trade implications into China, not only the largest producer of pork in the world, but also the largest consumer of pork in the world. Then you overlay some of these tariff issues that are out there today, these are the sort of discussions that we are hoping to have and lay out for the membership.”

Finally, Hallstrom says the event provides an opportunity for the entire global meat supply chain to network and learn more about global markets…tape

Cut #4 :36 OC:…”from the market.”

“getting the whole supply chain together in one meeting with some of these issues is vital because the points of view and the areas of importance vary by sector, so it’s good to get a general opinion from everybody. The other feature of our meeting that we also do is we bring a lot of our international directors over from the offices that we have overseas. And, we’re bringing over a record number actually of international staff to this meeting. I think we have 15 coming over. So, we’re looking forward to having international directors networking with the membership as well, that’s always very helpful for the members to hear directly from the market.”

Find more details about the event online at USMEF.org.

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