On Monday morning we received a briefing in a hotel conference room by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) representatives Joel Haggard and Ming Liang. USMEF is a private nonprofit trade association working to creat new opportunities and develop existsing international markets for U.S. beef, pork, lamb and veal. USMEF activities fall into three primary areas 1) Trade Servicing which includes market intelligence, qualifying buyers and leads, facilitating contacts between suppliers and buyers, and providing technical assistance with labeling, export documentation and product claims 2) Product Promotion and Education which includes building demand thought joint promotions with leading retailers and restaurants, conducting meat schools and seminars, consumer education, advertising and public relation campaigns 3) Market Access by providing U.S. government and industry partners with market intelligence to secure, maintian and develop fair and reasonable access to international markets.
Joel and Ming covered USMEF's role in China, Domestic Livestock Production, Meat Pricing, Trade and Import Data, Retail & HRI Sector Trends and USMEF Marketing Programs in China. This was a very relevent briefing as usage of soymeal in the livestock sector has a significant impact on U.S. domestic meal values as well as export usage and values.
They shared that while Asia imports about 50% Beef and 50% Pork, China only allows imports of U.S. Pork but since the BSE scare in the U.S. years ago, U.S. beef is not allowed. Beef imports are allowed from Australia, New Zealand and many other countries around the world. Some beleive that China is using the restriction on U.S. Beef as a negotiation tool to try to get other consessions from the U.S. They shared with the group that the MN Soybean P&R Council Pork promotion budget for 2012 was $122,500 while the USMEF China Pacific Region budget is $575,000.
US pork is very competitive in the China market even though the Chinese producer pays no taxes on livestock production. About 20% of pork is slaughtered by China's single largest pork processor that is two times larger than Hormel. The slaughter plants are spotless even though there is no national inspector program. The local government is responsible for inspections of slaughter facilities and officials can go to jail if they know of an issue and don't take action. It appears that instead of education they use sanctions and jail time as enforcement tools.
As a condition for China to enter the World Trade Organization the United States insisted that the agreement included additional conditions for Pork, Wheat and Citrus. One part of the agreement was that China would recognize all U.S. Meat Plants that process Poultry, Beef, and Pork under USDA inspection as having acceptable quality standards to meet export - import criteria. This has proved to be a very beneficial consideration of the agreemnt as China has no need to inspect and approve individual meat processing plants.
After lunch we went to the Shenzhen HIGREEN International Agricultural Products Logistics Park and the Ping Hu Food Whole Sale Market which is also the largest frozen market in the Shenzhen area. While there we saw vendors who were distributing fresh vegitables and fruits of all kinds. This included sweet corn, water mellons, other mellons, apples, pears, oranges and other items. We walked through the cooler buildings that had hall ways between the coolers for venders to showcase the meat products that they had available to end users such as restaurants and retailers. We saw boxed meats of all kinds imaginable, including pork hooves, pork ears, pork stomachs, and chicken paws all from the United States. Some of the companies boxes that we saw included Swift, Perdue Farms Inc., Mountaire, Sanderson Farms Inc., Abbyland Pork Pack of Curtiss WI - pork ribs; Amick Farms of Atlanta GA - chicken paws; and Viking Boat - sandwich hams. International companies boxed meat that we saw included the Marifrig Group of Brazil - frozen boneless beef shank with heel muscle; West Fleisch of Germany - frozen pork riblets; Person of Holland - frozen pork breastbones; Danish Crown - diced pork cubes.
Visit Wal-Mart Club store
Visit Shenzhen Xiang market (meat, fish, vegetables)
Tian Hong Retail
Visit Coco Park Mall
Dinner at Super Steak