November 29, 2007

US pork intensifies marketing campaign in South Korea

The US share on South Korea's pork market is fiercely challenged by European and imported products, thus the need for heightened campaign to promote US meat.

As part of its efforts to protect and grow the US share of the imported pork market, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) coordinated with Korean barbecue restaurant owners, chefs to inform them on how to effectively utilize US pork.

To accomplish this, USMEF held a US pork education programme that invited 41 Korean barbecue restaurants and two US pork distributors.

The program educated participants on US pork's superior taste, quality and profitability.

Participants sampled the promotion cuts of U.S. pork belly, collar butt and spare ribs and received comprehensive US pork education materials.

USMEF anticipates that this promotional effort will play a critical role in the country-of-origin labeling (COOL) policy when it takes effect for pork restaurants in Korea.

Korea is currently the fifth largest export market for US pork, with a volume of 67,504 metric tonnes valued at $162.6 million, a 7 percent increase from the same period last year.