A handpicked USMEF trade team from Mexico and Central America toured pork plants in the Midwest last week, visited the Iowa Soybean Association office and attended the World Pork Expo. The team came to buy – their orders ranged from five to 100 loads per month. Their activities were funded by the Pork Checkoff and the Iowa Soybean Association.
The World Pork Expo, billed as “the world’s largest pork-specific trade show,” is organized by the National Pork Producers Council and has exhibitors from 48 countries and attracts about 20,000 pork producers and other attendees.
To highlight the pork industry’s effort to promote pork variety meat to international customers, Steve Larsen, assistant vice president of science and technology for the National Pork Board (NPB), and industry consultant Benjy Mikel grilled variety meat samples including tongue, jowl bacon, heart and diaphragm and offered them to pork producers at a tasting and education session at the NPB tent.