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Halfway through the “Meat with European quality” campaign

Halfway through the “Meat with European quality” campaign

The first year of the “Meat with European quality” campaign has come to an end. It was a year full of events designed to familiarize North American specialists with European meat production, and give European producers access to practical knowledge about local markets.  

The “Meat with European quality” campaign aims to inform and promote the values of pork and beef and meat products produced in the European Union. To enable experts and opinion leaders from Canada and the United States to gain practical knowledge about the quality of meat and the production system in force in member countries, we invited them to Europe. In November 2018, we hosted a group of journalists and opinion leaders in Poland. A rich program of stay, including visits to production plants, meetings with European producers, exporters and representatives of administration and control bodies, as well as lectures, enabled the exchange of knowledge and experiences between hosts and guests.

Seminar Warsaw

In March 2019, we invited a group of ten importers and distributors of meat from Canada and the United States. This visit was organized in a similar formula. An important point of the program was the seminar “High quality of European meat – tradition and passion”, during which the invited guests were both listeners and speakers. Experts from Poland spoke about various aspects of the meat production system, distinguishing the European Union from other countries around the world. Professionals from America talked about the characteristics of the Canadian and American market from the point of view of international meat marketing. Guests also had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the production cycle and high standards in meat establishments implementing the EU principle “from field to table” in their work. Visits in the plant also enabled direct contact with industry specialists responsible for particular stages of production, a lively discussion and business talks.

Workshops LA

As part of the information campaign, we also organized a mission of five experts from the Polish meat market to Canada and the United States, who were accompanied by representatives of the Union of Producers and Employers of the Meat Industry. On April 1 and 2, 2019, they were guests of the Grocery and Specialty Food West exhibition in Vancouver. From there they went on a study visit to Los Angeles, where they were the host of a seminar devoted to export-import issues between the European Union and the United States. The stay in California also included visits to food outlets offering meat to get acquainted with the tastes of local consumers and the ways of creating the range of products, display and packaging of goods.

On April 30–May 2, we talked about meat from Europe at our booth at SIAL Canada in Toronto. The “Meat with European quality” campaign was represented there by a delegation of five meat producers and exporters along with representatives of the Union of Producers and Employers of Meat Industry. We are proud that during the largest food industry event in North America, the subject of European pork and beef attracted the interest of many meat sector experts, including potential contractors.

During the events mentioned, the initiators and experts of the “Meat with European Quality” campaign conducted more than a hundred business talks with representatives of business, industry organizations and administration in Canada and the United States. In total, about a thousand sets of information materials were handed out, prepared especially for the needs of the campaign.

At the same time, we conducted promotional activities in the American and Canadian industry media. Our advertisements appeared in the largest press and online titles of the food sector, including Grocery Business, Supermarket News and Canadian Grocer. For all those who are interested, we have uploaded a compendium of knowledge about the European meat production system on our YouTube channel.  There you can watch several-minute films about pig breeding, cattle breeding, pig meat processing, beef cutting and processing, and the meat production and supply chain.

Most of these activities will be continued in the following months as part of the second year of the campaign. The second edition of the exporters’ mission in the United States and Canada is planned for November, including the presence at the annual Meat Import Council of America conference and industry workshops in Toronto. At the turn of February and March 2020, the second edition of a study trip to Poland will be held for representatives of food industry media and opinion leaders from Canada and the United States. We will soon inform you about the exact dates, planned visits and recruitment rules. The current communication with journalists, bloggers and opinion leaders related to the meat industry will also be maintained, and in the coming weeks, the YouTube channel will feature new films about European meat products.

The campaign effectiveness carried out after the first year shows that specialists and opinion leaders from America have a good opinion about European pork and beef and meat products. They appreciate them primarily for the traditional breeding method, high quality and nutritional values. They also often consider European meat to be tastier than meat from other regions of the world.