“Upheaval, that describes 2020,” said Gwendolyn Kitzan, chair of the American Lamb Board (ALB), in the opening of the board’s 2020 annual report. Despite the challenges faced by the industry, the report highlights changing gears from restaurants to promotions both online and in-person.
“Literally within days, your American Lamb Board shifted programs and continued to do so for months as situations evolved. Promotions and communications intensified. As dining out became almost nonexistent, home cooks became our primary consumers. Many had never prepared lamb, so making our product more accessible and approachable was paramount,” continued Kitzan in the report.
Some of the promotions highlighted in the report include:
• H-E-B retail promotion—the first of its kind for the checkoff program—resulted in American lamb sales increasing 46.6 percent compared to the same time a year earlier;
• Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe and ALB partnered for the first-ever American lamb chain restaurant promotion that included all 90 locations in 17 states;
• The American Lamb Challenge contest was developed at record speed to address the early COVID-19 situation. It enticed consumers to give lamb a try and raised funds for Feeding America;
• The Lee Initiative, with the help of ALB and others, provided meals and essential supplies to hospitality workers who were deeply affected by COVID closures; and
• The Lamb Lovers Month contest used methods such as emails, Facebook, Instagram ads, “Lambassador” blogs and AmericanLamb.com to promote lamb and encourage consumers to try a new dish with lamb.
Additionally, with the support of food influencers, ALB developed 78 new recipes to inspire consumers to use lamb in home cooking. The report stated with 21 food influencers, ALB was able to reach over 2 million people on Instagram.
While the bulk of the annual report highlights promotions undertaken during the pandemic, ALB announced it is working with Michigan State University to evaluate the environmental impact of the U.S. lamb industry. The initial focus of the study is to develop a partial life cycle analysis of lamb production in systems such as range, farm flock pasture and feedlot.
Once this is established, the researchers will establish data on mitigation strategies of greenhouse gas emissions. Work was delayed due to COVID-19 on ALB’s work with Colorado State University and Texas Tech University on flavor research.
Lastly, the report highlights the financials for Fiscal Year 2020—Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020—showing $1,849,708 of checkoff dollars were spent, with the majority of the funds on promotion and communication, and the remainder spent on research, USDA oversight and administration.
“Your checkoff dollars are enticing consumers to make American lamb part of their meals. Whatever comes in 2021, you can be sure ALB will meet the challenges head-on. Thank you for your continued support and valuable input,” said Kitzan. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
