Share your thoughts with our readers: Email your contribution, no less than 300 words, to [email protected] As the Corporate Chef of a local distributor here in Saudi Arabia, I have been fortunate enough to travel all over the Kingdom discussing beef options with restaurant owners and chefs, as well as the general public. As an American chef traveling throughout all the diverse regions of the Kingdom over the past four years, I feel very lucky to have seen the growth of the restaurant industry, as well as the increased desire for quality from the Saudi people. Once thought of as a place to just send the leftover or poorer quality products, the markets around the world are seeing Saudi Arabia for what it is - a great market that loves quality products. US beef producers were one of the first groups to realize this. Twenty-five years ago, US beef was being sent to Saudi Arabia in small quantities, but that grew very quickly. Beef brands like Certified Angus Beef brought quality products to the Kingdom, and very quickly Saudi Arabia became the largest consumer of that brand. So large in fact, that as of 2011, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consumed more Certified Angus Beef than all of the other GCC countries combined. As the Corporate Chef for Gulfwest, I have been lucky enough to help restaurants design burgers, upgrade their steak choices, and teach the community and operators about the overall quality of beef they can offer their customers. Many restaurants responded by realizing that their customers deserved the best. In the time I have lived in the Kingdom, the restaurant scene has grown and advanced many years in a short time. The Saudi market demands, expects and should enjoy high quality food. Then came the US beef ban. In all fairness, there was one case of Mad Cow disease. However, the United States government was transparent in reporting and investigating it. They did not hide it as some countries have or would. The case was investigated. The investigation uncovered that it was a strain of the disease that was linked to only one cow. It was a dairy cow that would never have been used for meat consumption, and it had not infected any other cattle. In fact, it was an example of the rigid safety regulations of US beef production that the diseased cow was found and destroyed. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority acted correctly by banning US beef until a thorough investigation was made. Beef producers from other countries saw the opportunity and began flooding the market with their beef. Unfortunately, many producers flooded the market with cheap beef, at high prices, to fill the void. This has been going on for two years now. There are some good brands from these countries; however, the majority of the beef coming into the Kingdom is of poor quality and high price. As a result, restaurants have suffered, and most importantly, the consumer has suffered. The high prices some of these countries are charging treat Saudi Arabia as a secondary market where cheap quality products can be dumped. I am asserting that this needs to stop. US beef is safe, and more importantly, US beef producers understand that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a primary, emerging market, where the consumer understands and expects high quality at a fair price. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority has done its job. They have protected the population from a potential problem. However, the United States has provided the evidence that this was not an outbreak, but an isolated incident. They have shown that their intense safety measures have worked and discovered the problem. It is now up to the restaurant owners, operators, and more importantly the customers to demand the return of better quality to the Kingdom. It is up to the Saudi Food and Drug Authority to respond, by lifting the ban on US beef imports. Saudi customers and consumers should be treated with the respect of being considered a primary market worthy of the finest products. Saudi customers deserve and should expect the best. It is time to lift the ban so the Saudi market can once again be treated with the respect it so richly deserves.
