Whether you’re selling bulls, a potload or premium beef, finding new customers is vital to business. However, so is growing relationships and sales with current customers. For Certified Angus Beef (CAB), it’s a combination of both driving the brand’s success in the global beef market. 

Despite tight beef supplies and declining total U.S. beef export volumes, CAB’s international division is growing in sales.

The CAB international team is pleased, though not entirely surprised, by the increased demand for the premium beef brand. 

It’s been a very good year so far for CAB in our international division.” — Cody Jones, vice president of international for the brand. 

CAB exports are up 7.5% year over year; while total U.S. beef exports, excluding offals, are down for the same period. The brand’s international sales reached 194.6 million pounds (lb.) for the fiscal year.  Jones attributes the growth to various factors, including increased demand for quality beef; entering emerging markets with new partnerships; strong economic factors and enthusiastic, established brand partners.

Countries leading the way in sales of CAB this year are Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Japan. 

Canada has historically been the leader in CAB exports. However, the country is on track to have a record-setting year in 2024. 

“We continue to engage with retailers, distributors, consumers, packers, processors, and cattlemen in Canada at a high level,” Jones says. “Mexico is a little bit of a Cinderella story for us. They’ve never ranked this high before, but the peso is super strong against the U.S. dollar right now."

Many allied industries, including USMEF (U.S. Meat Export Federation), Canada Beef and CAB, have collaborated to grow demand for high-quality beef in Mexico. 

“Mexico used to be a commodity market, but it is very much a quality market now. Buyers are seeking quality beef, and the brand is really reaping that benefit through our retail and foodservice partners in Mexico,” Jones says. 

Opportunity for growth in the Middle East and Asia

CAB is steadily growing in sales and popularity across the Middle East and Asia through strategic hires, targeted marketing campaigns and strong partner relationships.  

In 2023 the international team expanded its staff by adding a director of Middle East and Southeast Asia, director of Japan, director of Korea and director of business development and marketing in East Asia.

Steve Ringle, the executive vice president of business development, says the decision to add these hires has set the international team on an excellent trajectory for growth.

“We know that to be effective in these markets, it’s not just about understanding the market per se,” Ringle says. “It’s about having an intimate working knowledge of the entire area. You really only get that by hiring people from these cultures.”

This year a staff member from CAB will visit or already has visited every priority market, a feat that has never been done before. 

The brand is seeing success in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the Middle East. Sales were up 80% year over year from October 2023 through May 2024.

CAB is making headway in the region due to strengthened connections through training and events, such as the Gulf Food Show in Dubai. The largest food show in the world, the Gulf Food Show offers staff the perfect opportunity to connect with restaurant, retail, foodservice and export partners across the Middle East. 

“One way I benchmark our progress is to calculate the percentage of CAB of the total U.S. beef exports to that region. In the Middle East, CAB is 30% of all U.S. beef being imported — one of the highest percentages in the world for the brand,” Jones says.

Southeast Asia is another part of the world seeing growth in CAB sales. The brand has been focused on consumer marketing to grow retail sales in Asia. 

The iconic brand logo has been transcreated into traditional Chinese and Korean. Beef product labels were also updated to reflect the native language. A new website for Korea was recently launched, and a traditional Chinese website will be launched soon. 

Gebran Charbine, vice president of brand marketing, international and multicultural, shares localizing marketing and sales resources is a vital part of the brand’s growth strategy. 

“Customers are more likely to engage and purchase from a brand that communicates in their language,” Charbine says. “It grows trust with consumers and creates loyalty.”

Meeting consumers where they are, both geographically and culturally, also means marketing CAB to them in nationally relevant ways. In Asian markets, the brand has been utilizing social media tactics that resonate with the local audience. 

“We worked with Entas, a licensed barbecue restaurant in South Korea, to sell marinated CAB short ribs for the Lunar New Year in a live e-commerce sale on social media. We had 280,000 impressions over one hour,” Charbine says. 

In Japan, the brand runs Instagram ads reflecting local pop culture designs and calls to action to find a licensed retailer. In Hong Kong, the brand enlisted the help of 12 micro-influencers to promote CAB’s local e-commerce retailer, Food Panda. The total reach was around 165,000 people during four days. 

Charbine says the mission to increase demand for registered Angus cattle requires educating consumers about CAB vs. other global beef products.

“We will always strive to enhance the customer experience, not just through the premium product itself, but also through our marketing and educational resources,” Charbine says.

Table 1: International Sales

New places, new products

In addition to finding new markets worldwide, the international team has been focused on introducing new items to product mixes. 

“Some countries, like Vietnam, are big middle meat customers for us,” Jones says. “Others buy primarily grinds. In general, we are pushing for more sales of round items.” 

Ringle adds that HEB Mexico, a 20-year brand partner, is seeing record sales this year, thanks in part to adding new retail items to its cases. 

“We see similar trends in Canada. There are geographical pockets with their bread-and-butter items. We’ve been trying to educate partners about additional items and are seeing success there,” Ringle says. 

Adding to the product mix positively affects carcass utilization, a win-win for cattlemen and packers alike. Bruce Cobb, executive vice president of production, says this is a great example of the brand’s pull-through demand. 

“The neat aspect of what the international market brings to producers is it allows us to participate in a market where there is more value placed on a particular cut than in the U.S. Any time you can add value to a carcass, that’s an economic signal to the packer, to the feedlot, and all the way down to commercial and seedstock cattlemen that we need more Certified Angus Beef^® [product],” Cobb says. “The more we can increase the utilization of the carcass as CAB, it enhances that demand across the entire carcass, rather than just a portion of a carcass.”

By increasing the value of the whole carcass, there’s  financial reward for all involved. 

“Over 15% of the total CAB supply is sold internationally, contributing to the premium cattlemen receive for producing Certified Angus Beef,” Cobb says. 

Quality speaks universally no matter the language, and CAB is looking forward to continued growth internationally. 

Editor’s note: Brianna Gwirtz is a freelance writer from Shelby, Ohio.