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Consumer education programs driving U.S. pork demand in Central America

Exports of U.S. pork to Central America continue to grow and the U.S. Meat Export Federation says consumer education programs help drive demand.

Lucia Ruano says funding from the USDA and the National Pork Board helped showcase the quality and versatility of U.S. pork to consumers. “They can learn the nutritional facts because we bring experts to these types of workshops where they can have all that information first hand from doctors and nutritionists,” he says. 

She says the Girls Can Grill series of workshops, in which educators taught consumers how to properly prepare U.S. pork, was incredibly successful. “We trained around 300 women,” she says. It was very nice to see how surprised they were when they tried the pork cooked in the correct way.”

Pork exports to Central America were up 20% year-over-year in 2023 and have continued to grow in 2024 with exports up 17% in volume on the year and up 26% in value.