In China, Sam’s Club is one of the leading retail outlets for high-quality beef and pork.
With support from the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Pork Board, the U.S. Meat Export Federation recently brought a team of Sam’s Club buyers from China to South Korea to gain insights on packaging, merchandising, and promotion of U.S. beef and pork.
Jihae Yang, USMEF vice president for the Asia Pacific, explains that the Sam’s Club buyers were not only interested in new merchandising trends for beef and pork cuts, but also for value-added items in the home meal replacement (HMR) category.
“We took them to visit a couple of the leading retail stores to show how the Korean retailers are merchandising U.S. chilled beef, including the Korean style barbecue and the steak items – thick cut steak,” he says. “Sam’s Club is very much interested in home meal replacement items and the case-ready items.”
Yang adds that the buyers also heard from a leading Korean importer on how to more efficiently move U.S. beef and pork into retail channels.
