Members of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) will gather in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 6-8 for the federation’s annual Strategic Planning Conference.
USMEF Chair Randy Spronk, a pork and grain producer from Minnesota, will mark the end of his term of leadership of the organization.
“Any time that we get funding to be able to come alongside our producer funds from our checkoff is important to us here,” Spronk says. “We’ve got some opportunities to create more diversification in some of these new markets here.”
Spronk specifically sees opportunities with Indonesia. Even though there is not a free trade agreement with Indonesia, the tariffs are mild. Funding from USDA’s new Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) can help open marketing there.
“When you start talking about 280 million people, we’d have the ability to use RAPP funding for beef, pork and lamb to create new opportunities and diversify our markets,” he says.
At the conference, Spronk will serve on a panel with Bob Ruth from National Pork Board and Ross Havens from Cattlemen’s Beef Board to talk about telling the story of producers.
“It’ll be great to hear Bob and Ross and their commentary on traveling internationally with USMEF, and the take homes that they have. They can actually convey to producers on why it’s important to support USMEF.”
Spronk says it’s important to share these experiences with international partners as it builds relationships and trust in the product the U.S. exports.
“Don Pemberton and I were in Korea and Japan a year ago on our Heartland Tour, and it was really interesting to see Don cooking steak in Korea with bloggers,” Spronk explains. “It’s a producer from Kentucky telling his story of how he raises beef and then actually taking that product to Korea and cooking it.”
The meeting agenda is packed with relevant and insightful topics. Jim Wiesemeyer, will offer an analysis on the impact of the presidential election and its potential effects on U.S. trade policy and a leading expert will provide updates on U.S.-Mexico trade relations.
“Mateo Diego will be talking about Mexico, which is a very important market for us,” Spronk says. “They’ve got a new administration there, and we’ll talk about how our two countries are going to work together, not only from a labor and a trade standpoint, but actually from exports of beef, pork and lamb.”
Updates from the conference will be available on the USMEF website.
