North America

By Rob Williams, MLA International Business Manager, North America

I’ve recently taken up the reins as MLA’s International Business Manager in North America, following my recent role working for the red meat processing sector with both the Australian Meat Industry Council and the Australian Meat Processor Corporation. Previous to this I worked for the Australian Government and had the privilege of working in two overseas Embassies (originally in Washington DC, then more recently in Beijing).

Aside from settling into a new country, I’ve been busy assessing whether any of the new policies from the Trump Administration will impact the interests of Australian red meat. MLA has also been working hard to grow demand for Australian red meat at a series of events for chefs. I’ll now go into more detail on these:

Putting Australian red meat on the menu

On the marketing front, MLA recently held eight culinary immersion events, involving 112 chefs who represent more than 8,000 restaurants. At these events, chefs were shown how to use Australian beef and lamb in new and exciting dishes, such as barbecued grassfed beef ribs in a mole sauce on flour tortillas, and bone-in lamb shoulder slow cooked with saffron, honey and apricots. Nearly half of the chefs responded to a follow-up survey which found:

• more than 95% of respondents trialled Australian product on their menus
• 58% put Australian product on their menus permanently.

This is a great outcome, proving the value of connecting with chefs, sharing the clean and green story of Australian red meat and demonstrating the versatility of our product. Following the events, more than 10 public relations articles were published in key chef magazines (digital and hard copy).

MLA also held the ‘Wagyu Chef’s Roll’ event in Las Vegas. We had three exporters/suppliers providing product to three key chefs who prepared Australian Wagyu for more than 60 people, including other chefs and restaurant influencers. Initial feedback from the event was very positive, with the event round-up being viewed more than 79,000 times on the Chef’s Roll Instagram account. There have been more than 2.5 million impressions for the last two Chef’s Roll events.

Market access opens for competitors

MLA also continues to keep tabs on our competitors. The void created by Australia’s tight supply of beef has partly been filled by our major competitors in the US market: Canada, Mexico, Uruguay and New Zealand.

More exporting countries are entering or are about to enter the US market, including Brazil, France and possibly soon Argentina. The emergence of beef from Brazil and Argentina in particular represents a major challenge for Australian beef – especially in the manufacturing beef segment. MLA will continue to closely monitor the situation.

‘Made in America’ tax plan – proposed tax on imported products

MLA is closely watching the current Republican proposal to introduce a border adjustment tax (currently proposed at 20%) to be applied to all imports from all countries. It has been colloquially named as the ‘made in America tax plan, and also incorporates tax incentives for exports. If approved, this tax would be applied to imports of red meat.

There is also revived discussion around mandatory country of origin labelling for beef, despite the fact that the US removed this under the previous Administration due to a successful World Trade Organization case bought by Mexico and Canada.

In these uncertain times of the new US Administration it is important that our red meat industry does not second guess or speculate too much, as it is currently difficult to read the political climate, even for seasoned DC analysts. We need to keep doing what we do best, and that is providing premium chilled beef and lamb into a market where we have carved out important niches.

More information
Rob Williams
International Business Manager – North America
rswilliams@mla.com.au