In an effort to focus on U.S. exports to Africa, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) hosted a trade seminar in Accra, Ghana. Twelve African countries and 30 exporters were represented at the first-time event. USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom says Africa is critical to the U.S. industry’s efforts to expand and diversify global markets for U.S. red meat.
“One of our core missions is to bring buyers and sellers together, especially in these emerging markets that are still not developed today,” Halstrom says. “It’s time to take the next step and get aggressive and really tell our story in these countries.
Importers and exporters hosted direct meetings, heard presentations from USMEF and USDA leaders as well as representatives of the U.S. cattle industry and successful African meat businesses. They also toured retail stores and cold storage facilities. The focus on face-to-face meetings helps build relationships in most markets in the world.
“We wanted to make sure I could put the best possible delegates from the USA into the best possible buying room we could facilitate,” says Matt Copeland, USMEF Africa Representative.
Copeland says 51 companies and 76 buyers came together with total values more than 140,000 tons of protein purchased a month.
“We have this emerging middle class, and those guys, one of the first things they do as they emerge is they want to spend money on a better experience,” he adds. “We’re going to take advantage of that wave.”
Robert Preska of trading company Lamex Foods has been working in Africa for 15 years and says he had the opportunity to meet new African buyers who have established businesses in the Ivory Coast, which gives new opportunities to the industry.
“At these meetings, we have several people in high-end restaurants who are interested in high-quality beef to put on the plate, and we’re really trying to work to get some air samples over, because it’s going to be very difficult to sell them a full container, right off the bat,” Preska says. “If we can get some samples into them, somehow it becomes feasible that in a few months, we could be talking about moving some containers of primal cuts over here.”