KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Certified Hereford Beef, LLC experienced a record year of growth during fiscal year 2015 with 51.2 million pounds of product sold — a two percent increase compared to the previous year’s total.
Since 2008, Certified Hereford Beef has increased beef sales by 46 percent. Celebrating its 20th year as a brand, the Certified Hereford Beef program continues to expand its market share. Advantages in flavor are fueling the brand’s advance in both food service and retail markets.
Food service
Food service continues to provide the most growth opportunity for the brand. As consumers continue to prepare fewer meals at home, a high-quality source of beef is supplied to restaurants and chefs through distributors around the country.
Certified Hereford Beef food service division experienced a 2 million pound growth during in 2015. The program also experienced growth in its export sales to the Caribbean, Central and South America markets.
Value-added
A new opportunity implemented to the program this fiscal year was value-added products. “Adding value to CHB primal cuts is proving to be a great asset to CHB’s bottom line for retail and food service,” explains Mick Welch, CHB LLC vice president of sales.
Certified Hereford Beef is paying attention to trends in customers who prefer to eat out and in return Certified Hereford Beef is providing value-added products to their distributors. The retail and food service divisions continue to build brand recognition through programs like the National Grocery Association tradeshow and radio marketing opportunities.
Supply and demand
As the demand for Certified Hereford Beef continues to grow, the supply of high-quality cattle must also continue to increase. In a cattle market that is offering record low cattle numbers, the brand continues to find ways to utilize as much of each carcass as possible.
This past year a total of 336,147 cattle were identified through the brands licensed packing facilities as eligible from a live specification standpoint, while more than 235,650 carcasses were certified for the program — a certification rate of 70 percent for the year.
Trey Befort, CHB LLC director of commercial programs said, “Supply for Certified Hereford Beef moving forward looks very positive. As the Hereford breed continues to gain market share and more commercial cattlemen are using Hereford genetics, the supply for [the brand] will continue to grow.”
Growing brand
Since the beginning of Certified Hereford Beef, more than 5.3 million cattle have been identified, and more than 3.4 million carcasses certified to carry the name at licensed packing partners.
Continued growth of cattle numbers and beef tonnage sold is expected to move forward as well as growth in the value of Hereford-influenced cattle.
