Global prices for meat continue to rise, which brings opportunities to teach consumers how to replace ingredients in traditional dishes with economically priced pork cuts and variety meats.

With funding from the Pork Checkoff, USDA and other checkoff programs including soybean and corn, US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) hosts programs and workshops for distributors, retail and foodservice vendors in key export markets to teach them new ways to offer economically priced pork options.

In Mexico and Central America, USMEF hosts workshops to demonstrate how to grill and cook new and traditional Mexican dishes in a cost-effective way with different US pork cuts and variety meats.

In Japan, USMEF promoted US picnics as a high-value cut for traditional dishes like yakiniku, Tonkatsu, pulled pork and ginger pork.

According to the National Pork Board, it invests in this work because it aligns with the international market development strategy to diversify market cuts and educate existing markets about pork cuts they don’t normally work with.