In a beautiful part of the US on a beautiful fall weekend in October, OBE Organic and MLA were working hard to get Australian beef on American menus.
Sure, it might not look like hard work, but beef doesn’t sell itself.
OBE has been exporting beef to the US for over ten years, and our sales team travel there regularly to speak to new and existing customers.
For MLA, getting leading US chefs to a resort town is a small but important part of their marketing efforts to make these influential people aware of how great Australian beef is, get them to trial it, and encourage them to buy more Australian product.
The US is Australia’s largest beef market, taking over 28% of our beef exports in 2015/16, and grass fed beef sales have been growing exponentially in recent years.
A big part of that success is the unseen and often under-appreciated work of MLA. With just two executives managing Australian beef and lamb market access and marketing in the US, we’ve been lucky to see first-hand the amount of work that goes to protecting and expanding this market that is so important for Australian farmers.
Which brings us back to that beautiful on the US east coast. MLA had gathered a group of 16 chefs and influencers from across the US who were already aware of Australian beef and lamb. Providing a great setting gave them the perfect opportunity to want to leave their restaurants and spend time trying it.
OBE Organic provided some of our amazing grass fed organic beef for the chefs to trial, and Sales Executive Lizzie McClymont timed one of her regular US marketing trips so she could drop in to tell chefs our unique provenance: cattle roaming freely across 17 million acres of certified organic grasslands to eat a vast array of natural pastures.
After a day of hearing about Australian beef and lamb, and cooking and tasting our organic grass fed beef, it was clear the US chefs loved the Australian story and loved working with our beef.
MLA conducts similar events twice a year, and they have a high rate of getting participants to put Australian beef and lamb on their menu. We hope the chefs who attended the weekend will join the many US customers buying OBE Organic beef.
Even if they all don’t though, after a weekend where chefs’ knowledge of Australia and of our beef and lamb industries increased exponentially, there is no doubt these influencers have a deeper knowledge and better perception of True Aussie beef and lamb. That means the whole industry is a winner.
Thanks MLA, and keep up the great work. We think it’s #aussome.
