Costco in Mexico is looking to expand sales of U.S. beef and pork to foodservice clientele. To help that effort, the U.S. Meat Export Federation, through the support of USDA, the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Pork Board, trained Costco sales staff on the needs of restaurant and resort chefs.

"Costco is a very important partner for USMEF because they only carry U.S. beef and pork. So when people go to their stores, they knew they will find this very high quality and consistent product that they are looking for, and that's exactly what U.S. beef and pork provides," says USMEF Mexico Corporate Chef Germán Navarrete. "They have points of sale all over the country. So we carried out different seminars because nowadays they're not only focusing on people who walk into the stores, they're approaching restaurants and hotels, and they're offering all of this array of U.S. beef and pork products that they carry. We carried out some seminars in order to train their sales force so that they know, not only the products, but how can it apply to restaurants and hotels and all of the different dishes that they can produce with all these different cuts that they have in their portfolio."

While information was presented on the attributes of U.S. beef and pork cuts, the program also detailed restaurant preparation methods and kitchen equipment, to give Costco personnel a strong knowledge base when approaching these customers.

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"Number one is what kind of equipment they have, what the target market is, and how they're going to cook the product based on these three premises? Then we go into the recommendation of what product they should be using," says Navarrete. "So by training sales personnel as to the best cooking methods for each piece, they can approach the customers in this regard. And also, we talk about cooking, not only cooking methods, but also the kind of equipment that they use at restaurants and hotels. So they know and they are aware of it, and they can recommend the best product for the best results."

U.S. pork exports to Mexico have reached new heights in 2024. Through October, exports totaled nearly 950,000 metric tons, up 6% from last year’s record pace, valued at $2.1 billion (up 11%). Beef exports increased 13% to 193,000 metric tons, while value climbed 15% to $1.12 billion.