Market diversification remained a priority for Canada Beef this summer as the team deployed initiatives and pursued opportunities to expand Canadian beef’s reach.
Canada Beef hosted a group of meat industry journalists from Japan and Korea at Calgary recently. Journalists were invited to experience and report on the Canadian beef industry, including Canadian beef attributes, the industry’s value chain and commitment to sustainability.
The journalists participated in three processing plant tours to better understand how Canadian beef is processed and to connect with Canadian meat processing experts. The group travelled across Alberta, visiting a feedlot, a seedstock farm and a cattle ranch, where they met with Canadian beef producers.
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The Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence organized a workshop outlining the Canadian beef advantage. This presentation included butchery demonstrations and product samplings to showcase attributes and versatility of Canadian beef.
In addition to business meetings and facility tours, the group visited local Canadian retail stores to observe how Canadian beef is displayed and marketed.
The journalists will write a series of articles to be published in their industry newspapers, magazines and social media platforms.
The media exposure comes as Costco Japan recently started selling AAA Canadian beef (chuck eye, flat iron, tongue, outside skirt) at its seven locations. Canada Beef’s Japan staff supported the launch with a series of demonstrations at these Costco locations.
Canada Beef also hosted Heath MacDonald, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada minister, along with Canadian beef industry leaders and Canadian beef buyers, and importers from Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines, at the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence.
The event, held during the 2025 Calgary Stampede, proved an excellent opportunity to discuss growing beef exports into Southeast Asia. Minister MacDonald participated in a Canadian beef cooking demonstration at the centre, where the visiting group learned about the quality attributes of grain-finished Canadian beef.
The Canadian beef buyers also toured a beef processing plant, feedlot and cow-calf ranch with Albert Eringfeld, Canada Beef’s vice-president of export market development.
Eric Bienvenue, along with other Canada Beef representatives, attended the Alberta Beef Industry Stampede Summit, Calgary Stampede Agriculture and Agri-Food Reception, Alberta Agriculture Minister Reception and a networking event at the Philippines Consulate General in Calgary, among others.
Collaboration with stakeholders continued throughout July as Bienvenue travelled to Toronto to participate in the Dairy Farmers of Canada 2025 annual general meeting. Canada Beef’s efforts internationally, along with exports and market diversification, were discussed.
Bienvenue then travelled to Indonesia, where Canada Beef exhibited at the Food and Hospitality Indonesia 2025, and then Vietnam, to participate in market development meetings and initiatives with local partners. In August, Bienvenue headed to Singapore to join AAFC Minister MacDonald’s agriculture trade mission and meetings with local importers.
Eringfeld participated in Canada Beef’s exhibition at the World Food Expo in Manila, Philippines, as well as the federal ag minister’s trade mission in the Philippines in early August. He will next join Canada Beef’s exhibition at the food fair ANUGA in Germany (October) and Canadian beef demand building events in the Gulf region (also in October). Additional demand-building seminars in Canada Beef’s key emerging Southeast Asian markets are in the process of development for the first quarter of 2026.
To drive domestic demand, Canada Beef operated a booth in the BMO Centre during the Stampede for the second consecutive year. The Canada Beef booth featured resources and information on Canadian beef, buying local, sustainable beef production and the nutritional benefits of beef.
Further engagement was achieved via a contest, a prize wheel where visitors could spin to win Canadian beef-themed prizes, as well as puzzles and activities for children.
Canada Beef and Alberta Beef Producers held a joint celebrity cook-off in the Calgary Stampede Kitchen Theatre. Two cook-off events were held in front of a live audience, who learned about the quality attributes of Canadian beef and sustainable aspects of beef production in Alberta and Canada — and ultimately decided the victor via a taste test of the finished product and its recipe.
During the first event, Modern Steak, chefs Jeromie Strom (Stephen Avenue) and Donald Cyr (Canada Beef) battled it out in the Kitchen Theatre. Congratulations to Cyr with the winning Grilled Steak Dippables recipe on the Gateway website.
The second head-to-head cooking competition featured an action-packed grill-off between Mel Chmilar Jr., a.k.a. Darkside of the Grill, and Mathieu Paré (Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence chef). Paré’s Grilled Steak Dippables dish was again declared the fan flavour favourite.
Canada Beef and the Alberta Beef Producers collaborated on a Ronald McDonald House Charities event in Calgary in late June. Through the Home for Dinner Program, volunteers purchase groceries and provide dinner for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. Paré and kitchen assistant Yoshi Taylor prepared a menu of slow-roasted bottom sirloin tri-tip, steamed summer vegetables and roasted baby potatoes, all served with mushroom gravy. Bienvenue, his wife, Shannon, and representatives from Alberta Beef Producers were on hand to serve 80 meals to Ronald McDonald House guests. Giving back to the community is a priority for Bienvenue and the team.
