US targets NZ lamb!
US sheep farmers have set their sights on New Zealand lamb imports, claiming NZ sheep meat is decimating their industry.
B+LNZ's Central South Island director Anne Munro has just been at the annual Tri-Lamb Group conference in Nevada with B+LNZ's North America manager Terry Meikle and Federated Farmers' Meat & Fibre Industry Group Chairperson Rick Powdrell. Representatives from the Sheepmeat Council of Australia (SCA) and the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) also took part.
The Tri-Lamb Group was established in 2004 to grow demand for sheepmeat in the US, mainly by increasing consumers' awareness of lamb's nutritional value.
"This collaborative marketing campaign has had real impact in the US market, but there is definitely room for us to be doing more. Americans still eat a relatively small amount of lamb per capita, so we're working together to do what we can to increase that," Munro says.
The conference agreed that the joint marketing campaign would put more of an emphasis on social media in 2015, targeting nutritionists and dieticians as well as lamb suppliers and retailers.
The Tri-Lamb Group also agreed to work more closely on other areas of common interest, including better engagement with young sheep farmers, raising the profile of sheep farming, and collaboration on research around sheep predators.
B+LNZ engages regularly with overseas farmer organisations in key export markets.
"Building better relationships with the likes of SCA and ASI helps us understand the viewpoints of sheep farmers from other countries, and to learn from them. For example, this year we talked a lot about how sheep farmers in each of our countries deal with droughts – something that is obviously relevant for Kiwi sheep farmers right now," Munro says.
