U.S. National Pork Board travelled to Asia to meet with industry members
By Kaitlynn Anderson
Staff Reporter
Farms.com
Members of the National Pork Board now have stronger ideas on how to improve the market for U.S. pork after returning from a trade mission in Asia.
The team, which represented Pork Checkoff, met with pork processors, distributors, retailers, importers and traders in Japan and China from Sept. 5 to 16, according to a press release.
“Pork is the most (largely) consumed protein in the world, and that was certainly obvious as we toured parts of Japan and China,” Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board, said in the release.
“It is important for us to see firsthand how pork is raised, processed and promoted in Asia. The Asian customer and consumer culture is unique, and we need to understand the global motivation to purchase U.S. pork.”
Understanding such market dynamics in other countries will be important for members of the American pork industry, as “the U.S. is facing record-breaking pork production in 2017,” according to the release.
While realizing demand for pork around the world is important for the industry, maintaining product quality and trust among trading partners is also vital.
“Marketing pork comes down to building long-term relationships and having a safe, dependable, high-quality product that is presented well to the buyer,” Terry O’Neel, president of the National Pork Board, said in the release.
The way in which the U.S. markets pork is slightly different between countries in North America and Asia, according to Maria Zieba, director of international affairs with the National Pork Producers Council.
“We have a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada through NAFTA, so that gives us a little bit of an advantage,” Zieba said in an interview with Farms.com. “We can export to those two countries without any tariffs or duties.”
However, the U.S. does not have a free trade agreement with Japan, which is their largest export market, according to Zieba.
In fact, last year the U.S. exported more than $1.6B worth of pork to Japan, she said.
The second difference between the two markets is in relation to the type of product that is exported.
“Where we see a lot of value added to U.S. exports is through the variety meats that are exported to the Asian market,” she said. “These products generate a large return for (the U.S.)”
Variety meats are parts of the animal that are not generally consumed in the U.S., such as the kidneys and heart, according to Zieba.
However, there are still barriers which make it difficult for the U.S. to improve their exports globally.
“We see some of our key competitors wanting to take some of (the Japanese) market share,” said Zieba.
“The European Union (EU) and Japan have just finalized a free trade agreement, which will allow the EU to export to Japan without facing some of the duties that (the U.S.) faces.”
Another barrier to trade is that countries cannot export pork that has been fed feed containing ractopamine to Taiwan.
“(The ban) is really limiting our access into some key markets,” said Zieba.
With the removal or limitation of these barriers, the U.S. could see improved market access.
“The U.S. exports more pork to the 20 countries with which it has free trade agreements with than to the rest of the world combined,” she said, noting that the U.S. would like to see an expansion of these free trade and bilateral trade agreements.
“When we have a free trade agreement, like we do with Canada and Mexico through NAFTA, we see tremendous gains.”
Photo: Kalinovsky Dmitry / iStock / Getty Images Plus