In China, Sam's Club is one of the leading retail outlets for high quality beef and pork. With support from the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Pork Board, the U.S. Meat Export Federation recently brought a team of Sam's Club buyers from China to South Korea to learn about new packaging and merchandising techniques both for beef and pork cuts, as well as value-added items in the home meal replacement category.

Jihae Yang, USMEF vice president for the Asia Pacific, explains that the Sam’s Club buyers were not only interested in new merchandising trends for beef and pork cuts, but also for value-added items in the home meal replacement category.

"The purpose of inviting the Sam's Club buyers to Korea is to show the advanced supply chain system as well as the merchandising technique and the new packaging methods, Yang says. "So we took them to visit a couple of the leading retail stores to show how the Korean retailers are merchandising U.S. chilled beef, including the Korean style barbecue and the steak items - thick cut steak. And show many different types of home meal replacement - HMR product utilizing U.S. beef and pork."

The Sam's Club buyers also heard from a leading importer on how to efficiently move product into retail channels.

"Sam's Club is very much interested in home meal replacement items and the case-ready items. So the purpose of the visit to Korea market is to learn about the new trends and a good opportunity for them to learn about the application - the new application of the U.S. meat ingredient for their home meal replacement product," Yang says. "And I also invited one of the key importers who supply to the Korean retail chain so we can learn about how we can establish or how we can improve the supply chain in the China market."