Importers' Checkoff Role
We hear a lot from beef producers about their perspective when it comes to the beef checkoff, but we don’t hear as much from importers, who also pay into the checkoff and help to fund the promotion, research and advertising efforts for the industry. In fact, importers account for about 10 percent of total checkoff dollars collected each year.
Don Stewart with Stewart Miller, Inc. of Illinois is an importer representative on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. He is on the operating committee and vice chairman of both the Beef Industry Budget committee and the Global Consumer Marketing group. “The most important thing to an importer, and should be to every beef producer, is the promotion of our product – all over the world, not just the United States, since 95 percent of the people who eat our product are not within the United States.”
He notes that checkoff revenue from importers has declined right along with that from producers. “We are caught up in a perfect storm,” he said. “We have a reduced domestic herd, and at the same time because of the weak U.S. dollar, we are not importing as much.” But he is optimistic that the industry will work together and profitability will improve in the future.
Listen to the interview with Don here.
Funded by the Beef Checkoff.
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