Idaho’s Theiler Becomes USMEF Chair

At the U.S. Meat Export Federation’s annual strategic planning conference last week, the organization elected Jay Theiler as the new chair.  The executive vice president for corporate affairs for Agri Beef Company in Boise, says his priorities in the coming year won’t deviate from the great groundwork laid by USMEF.

“We're going to need to continue to differentiate our product. We are the gold standard for products when you look at beef, pork and lamb around the world," he noted.  "This product is highly sought after. USMEF is really great at marketing and so making sure that we continue to market the differentiation and really focus on what makes these products so good and continue to drive demand is really going to be one of the key focuses.” 

We Need To Reassure Our Customers Moving Forward

Theiler  noted another priority is defending the markets built over the years.

“These are markets like Japan, Korea, Mexico, where we've had long-standing partnerships, where the business has been very developed," Theiler said.  "There may be some question about our reliability as a supplier with a lot of the political things going on, and we want to make sure that those customers that we've worked with for years and years know how important they are to us and how important those relationships are to us and our business."

Where Can Growth Occur?

Theiler added another area of focus is diversity, not just for the short term, but the next five decades as well.  He added while the loss of the Chinese market can’t be replaced, USMEF can build future business in markets that are now developing; places like the African continent, South America, Latin America, or Southeast Asia.

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