September 20, 2006

 

US Checkoff initiatives to focus on beef promotion and nutrition research

 

 

Beef promotion and nutrition would be the primary focus of checkoff programs in 2007, according to the Cattlemen's Beef Board (CBB).

 

The CBB Beef Promotion Operating Committee approved a beef checkoff plan of work at the recent annual budget approval meeting. The plan would fund promotion, research and information programmes in fiscal 2007 and is designed to build demand for beef using the checkoff funds.

 

The committee balanced the industry's requests for funding against anticipated checkoff collections for 2007.

 

Proposals were scrutinised and debated, with the best programmes selected for funding, said Jay O'Brien, a Texas cattleman and CBB operating committee chairman. He added that due to budget constraints, nearly US$4.76 million in proposed projects were denied.

 

The lion's share of the funding, US$28 million was slated for promotional activities such as consumer advertising and increased support for retail marketing.

 

The next biggest share, US$7.15 million, went to research on nutrition, product enhancement, beef safety and market research.

 

Nearly US$6.66 million was slated for consumer information programmes, including public education programmes on nutrition and safety, as well as youth education programmes on beef.

 

Foreign marketing efforts received US$4.8 million, to be managed by the US Meat Export Federation, including education programmes and marketing of US beef in international markets such as Japan, South Korea, China, the EU and other countries.

 

Industry information projects which provides for dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter anti-beef groups got US$1.5 million. This also includes projects on beef, veal and dairy-beef quality assurance programmes.

 

Producer communications, which includes checkoff communications to importers, received US$2.5 million. These include efforts for checkoff education and communications with beef, dairy and veal producers.

 

A separate US$11.76 million in allocations from the Federation of State Beef Councils would beef up checkoff funding of various national promotion programmes.

 

These programmes are awaiting approval from the USDA. Each contractor of the Beef Checkoff Programme works on a cost-recovery basis and, by law, cannot profit from work they do on behalf of the Beef Board.