U.S. Meat Interests Work on Japanese Consumers

August 1, 2002

Women have been chosen to tell the story of the safety of U.S. meat to Japanese consumers. The campaign strategy belongs to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. When BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was discovered in the Japanese herd last September, USMEF immediately went to work showing consumers that U.S. beef was safe and wholesome. Then, with beef checkoff dollars and funding from USDA and other sources, USMEF launched advertising in March designed to let women in the industry tell the U.S. beef story directly to Japanese consumers.

Last week, USMEF worked with Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman to demonstrate U.S. beef to children and their parents. Then, last Friday and this past Monday, USMEF conducted nutrition symposia featuring Texas Beef Council dietitian Shalene McNeill. And, next month, it will roll out a new cookbook featuring U.S. beef cuts and nutrition information.

While Japan remains the number one U.S. beef export market, revised USDA statistics for 2001 show U.S. exports to Japan declined 6% in volume from the record year of 2000, at 513,563 metric tons, while value was off 11% to about $1.6 billion. The USMEF effort has helped promote a steady return to beef and an increase in U.S. market share during the first half of 2002.

In 2001, according to revised USDA statistics, U.S. beef exports worldwide were 1.274 million metric tons, with a value of $3.406 billion. Exports now account for nearly 13.4 percent of U.S. beef production on a wholesale weight basis.