Surprising connoisseurs of the country's finest food products is no easy task, but that's exactly what happened at the luncheon organized by the Certified Angus Beef Program and Patagonia Meat & Co. Taking advantage of the APAS Show in São Paulo, the largest food and beverage event in the Americas, a group of over 100 buyers from resorts, hotels, butcher shops, supermarkets, restaurants, and large retail chains were welcomed at the Fogo de Chão steakhouse. On the menu, in addition to the best premium beef cuts marketed by Patagonia, was a lesson on the certification seal that has been certifying Angus cuts in Brazil for 23 years. While Fogo de Chão's highly trained staff ensured the tasting of perfectly salted and roasted meats, Maychel Borges, manager of the Certified Angus Beef Program, presented the key highlights of Brazil's largest breed and quality certification program. The program has already recorded the slaughter of 6,697,934 head of animals, resulting in a total production of 399,303 tons of certified meat. Of this volume, 22,279 tons were destined for the foreign market, serving a total of 51 importing countries. To support this scale of production, the certification has a robust infrastructure composed of 61 meat processing plants, which are distributed across 13 Brazilian states, covering all regions of the country. In addition to the numbers, Borges also showed those present on Tuesday (19) that the program is much more than a colorful sticker on the packaging, highlighting the robustness of the seal in quality, its consistency and added value. “Beyond quality, the seal is the assurance of opening boxes of meat from 15 or 20 different carcasses and always finding the same consistency. Our job is to guarantee that the same high-quality standard is delivered, whether the product comes from Rio Grande do Sul or the North of the country, and whether it is produced in January or December. And that's what we were able to prove to everyone today,” she reports. This is the second year that Carne Angus and Patagonia Meat & Co, a Brazilian producer, importer, and distributor of premium meats, have held a meeting for guests during the APAS Show. Nádia Mendes, owner and CFO of the company, explains that these opportunities are crucial to demonstrate the potential of certified meat, open doors, and even attract new clients. “The event in partnership with Angus is fundamental for Patagonia because, since the beginning of the company, our differentiator has been this guarantee of standard and quality that we validate when establishing the brand. This combination allows us to build customer loyalty and strengthen, in the eyes of our clients, the importance of certified beef. It is continuous work that still has a lot of room to grow,” analyzes the businesswoman. During the APAS Show, the representatives of the Program also reinforced the relationship and technical support to the partner industries that are exhibiting. “Most of our Angus Beef partners are present at the fair. Therefore, we also visit the stands and participate in meetings to serve the clients of all the partners here. It is a painstaking work, focused on information and education, so that the consumer learns to demand the certified seal at the butcher shop. The great value of the association is to consolidate a client who knows and asks for the seal, understanding the value of paying more for a premium product,” concludes the manager of the Certified Angus Beef Program.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.