With support from USDA, the National Pork Board and the Beef Checkoff Program, the U.S. Meat Export Federation is helping butcher shops in Colombia more effectively merchandise U.S. pork and beef cuts.

USMEF Latin America Representative Homero Recio recently updated USMEF members on the program, explaining the key role butcher shops play in Colombia’s retail sector and that there is still room for further expansion.

"Butcher shops in Colombia make up a larger part of sales than in other markets in Latin America. The modern supermarket format is growing in Colombia. But yet so much of the product is sold in these butcher shops," says Recio. "There's still some expansion left in that model for USMEF to work in. We are well received, we are welcome to work in that area. And we have really seen the ability for our products, pork and beef, to take market share, because of the individual cuts that we offer, the quality that we offer, the size and consistency that we offer.

"They say well, what's the price? That's obviously one of the major questions, but we try to move them beyond what's the price and we have a person that does an evaluation of their business and comes back with recommendations. This has resulted in some cost savings for these butcher shops, additional point of sale material, redesign of some of the butcher shops and providing information that those butchers can provide to their consumers."

The program focuses on beef and pork cuts that are underutilized in the domestic market, including pork brisket bone, sirloin and bone-in loin, as well as beef short ribs and tri-tip.

"One of the principal products that goes to Colombia on the beef side is the coulotte, the cap of the sirloin. It's a very traditional cut in Colombia, but the U.S. product is of a different quality level. But what we've been adding over the last couple of years is some secondary cuts like beef short ribs, beef tri-tip," Recio says.

"On the pork side, the emphasis is primarily loins. The sirloin end of the loin is a very popular cut as well as increasingly the bone-in full loin going into the marketplace. But the one real star - that's the pork brisket bone, which comes off the production of a St. Louis rib. That product is being sold fresh, but more and more is being cured and smoked - a value add item in the retail marketplace."