Philip M. Seng
President & CEO
U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF)
Seng joined the USMEF staff in the Tokyo office in 1982, was USMEF Asian director for six years and was named president and chief operating officer in January 1990. He is fluent in Japanese, played a central role in opening the Japanese beef market, is an authority on Japan’s complex distribution system and has worked closely with both industry and government officials in Japan.
USMEF’s Partnership with Japan dates back to 1977.
The value that the U.S. beef and pork industries place on Japan is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the first international office that the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) opened in 1977 was in Tokyo. Since then, Japan has time and again reinforced its position as one of the key export markets for U.S. red meat.
USMEF is proud to represent American beef and pork producers, who place the highest priority on producing the finest quality of red meat products – the kind of products that Japanese consumers expect and demand.
U.S. pork is honored to have been chosen by Japanese consumers as the No. 1 imported pork for the past five years. “Erabarete No. 1 – Selected No. 1 (by you)” is the theme of an advertising campaign that celebrates the popularity of U.S. pork in Japan. For the fifth consecutive year, U.S. pork exports to Japan exceeded $1 billion in value in 2009 ($1.4 billion through November), making it once again the leading value market for U.S. pork.
Similarly, Japan is a key market for U.S. beef. Prior to the discovery of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in our two countries, U.S. beef exports to Japan exceeded 1.2 billion pounds valued at more than $1.8 billion in 2000. While limitations on the age of cattle eligible for export to Japan have affected the volume of trade in recent years, Japan is once again the top market in terms of value per pound for high quality grain-fed U.S. beef. The “We Care” campaign that USMEF introduced in Japan is emblematic of the close connection the U.S. beef industry and Japanese consumers have developed over the past 33 years.
