KANSAS CITY, MO. — On the final day of its Spring Conference on May 24, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) detailed how red meat exporters look to build demand in international markets for beef and pork cuts that have limited use inside the United States.

Jessica Spreitzer, director of trade analysis for USMEF, moderated a panel of USMEF representatives working in Mexico, South America, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, who highlighted marketing efforts showcasing the attributes of underutilized cuts. 

Cuts that Spreitzer started with were pork loin exports, which now account for about 20% of US production, up from roughly 10% five years ago. For export demand for underutilized beef cuts, she noted that export markets account for 42% of the total US production of the gooseneck round, 30% of the chuck shoulder clod and 18% of top inside round.

“The export side adds pricing competition, potential customers and, ultimately, brings added value to these underutilized cuts,” Spreitzer said.

During his time, Lorenzo Elizalde, USMEF’s director of trade and marketing in Mexico, updated attendees on the mobile training program by USMEF, which utilizes a variety of US meat promotional vehicles to educate importers and distributors, and their customers, on underutilized cuts. 

Elizalde explained that USMEF is also utilizing these vehicles for month-long promotional campaigns for specific cuts such as US pork loin, beef knuckle and outside rounds. He also said that the US meat trucks will park outside major supermarkets in Mexico to provide sampling and promotion of cuts displayed inside the stores. 

Next up was Homero Recio, director of USMEF Latin America, who discussed his comments on the merchandising of underutilized cuts for Colombia, Peru and Chile. He also explained how USMEF works to promote the use of US pork and beef in these markets, especially talking about the research effort in Chile designed to promote rotisserie pork that uses loin rib-end. In Colombia, where beef liver is popular, USMEF is promoting new dishes such as beef liver brochettes with pineapple.

“For US pork as an example, we’re working to move the trade beyond simply offering ‘pork chops’ to packaging and merchandising US pork ribeyes and cowboy steaks,” Recio said. “We’re also encouraging the trade and their customers to utilize pork in new products such as pulled pork in a waffle cone and Boston butt in a ground pork burger.” 

Shifting over to another market, Taichi Uemura, the marketing manager in Japan, explained that most of Japan’s chilled pork imports are loins, mostly sold thinly sliced at retail for use in popular Japanese dishes. Uemura detailed USMEF’s new roast pork initiative, in which USMEF is working to expand consumers’ usage of the US loin.

After that, he also noted that many Japanese households do not have ovens, so Uemura’s marketing plan works to teach consumers how to create pork dishes using US pork loin slices.

USMEF later examined how competitive and price-sensitive the Taiwanese beef import market has been over the last decade and how the association continues to promote a range of alternative US beef cuts.

Alex Sun, USMEF’s senior marketing manager, said the strategic focus for the foodservice sector in 2024 is on the outside round flat and the top round. He noted that importers are not typically familiar with the versatility of these cuts, so USMEF tries to conduct educational seminars demonstrating how to fabricate them for foodservice. The importers’ foodservice customers are then presented with ideas for new dishes utilizing the cuts.

A final representative on the panel was Elly Sung, senior marketing manager in Korea, who reported that USMEF is working to expand US pork’s usage by comparing its quality and versatility alongside domestic product for importers, distributors and their customers. The United States continues to promote the usage of US pork with home meal replacement and restaurant meal replacement companies, pointing out a recent product development success in which US pork is utilized in a crispy, cheesy pork cutlet that is gaining popularity with Korean consumers.