With all the places the U.S. pork industry can focus international market development, why the United Kingdom (UK)?
Market diversification remains one of the National Pork Board’s (NPB) top priorities, explains Courtney Knupp, NPB vice president of international market development. Because of this, she says they look all over the globe for current and future opportunities to form consistent relationships with U.S. pork customers.
The stars aligned in 2022 when they looked at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service’s trade mission initiatives. One of the four trade missions was to the UK, a market NPB has had their eye on.
“The United Kingdom is one of the world’s largest importers of pork importing heavily from the European Union. Now that this market has left the European Union, they may be open to diversifying their suppliers. We do have some nominal business there in that we are the main loin suppliers to all of their approximately 30 Costco stores. There are opportunities, but we needed to understand how we can best build relationships with our exporters and importers and best position our product for potential future gains in market access,” Knupp says.
Knupp, along with Michigan pork producer Joe Dykhuis, joined the U.S. trade mission to the UK this summer to learn more about the UK consumer and what they are looking for in the meat case. They also spent time discovering the different needs the UK supply chain has in terms of consistency of delivery, quality and types of products.
Courtney Knupp at the U.S. Independence Day Garden Party. Photo by National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff.
Different Demands
For Dykhuis, the trip was an eye-opening experience. One of the first things he learned is UK consumers are not all that different from U.S. consumers. They care about their food, they want a safe product and they want to know they can have confidence in it. But he admits what they are looking to have confidence in and how they communicate might be different.
“It was interesting to engage in that experience as we tried to test our messages on sustainable production and our We Care Ethical Principles in a different market. We were able to get in front of some of the players in the supply chain there and are looking forward to getting their direct feedback on if we have a message that directly resonates or if we need to make some modifications to them,” Dykhuis says.
Although many of their pork products looked similar, he noticed the size of their pieces of pork were typically quite a bit smaller. He also thought the UK put more emphasis into the packaging.
“If I would use my 5-year-old’s language to describe how they labeled their stuff ... there’s the good packages for animal welfare and sustainability, then there’s the ‘gooder’ packages, then there’s the ‘even gooder than the gooder’ packages and then there’s the ‘so much gooder than the other gooders that you’ve never seen a better gooder,’” Dykhuis laughs.
US Pork promotion in a UK Costco store. Photo by National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff.
The truth is there’s not a whole lot of differentiation about what that means, he explains. Prices escalate the more elaborate the packaging and claims are.
“Our product in the U.S. seems to be about a piece of meat in a very efficient package, where theirs seems to be more of an experience to select,” Dykhuis says.
Pricy Production
Dermot Hayes, an economist from Iowa State University, monitors pork production costs all over the world. He says the U.S. production cost is far lower than in Europe, in part because Europeans protect their grain producers with high prices, but they also protect their pork producers with import duties and import quotas.
“One of the reasons their production costs in the EU are so high is they have prescriptions about how you can raise pigs – like when you can use antibiotics and how much space the pigs have to have. The EU has been telling producers what they need to do and that has increased their costs,” Hayes says.
In 2021, the U.S. exported slightly more than 1,000 metric tons of pork to the UK, which was valued at $3.9 million – a small share of the UK’s total pork imports of approximately 735,000 metric tons valued at $2.8 billion. Hayes believes there is opportunity to grow this market. Having lived in the UK, he can speak from experience there’s a tendency to see more pork in the diets of UK consumers. They also prefer loin bacon to belly bacon.
“They’re not big on belly bacon at all. In fact, if we did have a free-trade agreement, we might even import some of their bellies because our bacon prices are so much higher because we’ve figured out how to use it. When they use it, they call it streaky bacon, and it’s like a second-quality bacon.”
British ground pork 5% fat. Photo by National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff.
But loins are important to UK consumers. That’s why companies such as Costco in the UK are willing to pay duties to import U.S. pork loins.
“That tells you how competitive U.S. pork is,” Hayes adds. “One of the reasons UK left Europe is because Europe was setting very cautious scientific principles and very expensive interventions in how animals and crops are raised. The British don’t have the same need to interfere with markets and are more open to trade.”
If the U.S. could get equal access to the Danes, Spanish and Dutch, Hayes says the opportunity for the U.S. could be in the range of hundreds of thousands of tons of pork.
“It’s important for the National Pork Board to engage in these trips, trips that maybe the commercial sector is not ready to take yet,” he says. “If we ever have access, we are going to be a very competitive supplier.”
More Alike Than Different
“We care about animal welfare, and so do they. We just might do it a little differently. But from a food safety perspective and the why we do this, the story and the conversation are very on point with what we’re both trying to accomplish,” Knupp says.
That’s why the U.S. pork producer’s story goes a long way in forming relationships with other countries.
“Our pig farmers do so many things every day on their farm to run a good business, to have healthy hogs,” Knupp says. “It includes certification program participation, having an AgView account and signing up for a sustainability report with National Pork Board to assess sustainability. All those things add value to our story and differentiate our product in the eyes of the international consumer.”
The U.S. and UK have more similarities than differences, she adds.
“Everything our producers do on farm every day adds value to the U.S. Pork brand and product offerings in the global marketplace, a space where we must and do strongly compete by showcasing and differentiating our products versus other global suppliers,” Knupp says.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Best of British: Bacon that is
U.S. Pork Can Compete, Dykhuis Says
Blimey! Producer Promotes U.S. Pork in Britain
2021 Surprised Us, What’s Ahead for 2022 U.S. Pork Exports?
Despite Industry Challenges, Pork Producers Join Together in Unity
