Australian lamb has cemented its place in Ramadan feasts in the Middle East and North Africa, with Meat & Livestock Australia determined to grow the market share even further.
Farm to table freshness is resonating with the region's markets, along with Australia's position as a trusted supplier of safe, consistently high quality, halal red meat.
With the MENA area the highest value sheepmeat export region in 2018, MLA has over the past two years been running targeted marketing campaigns in the lead-up to Ramadan, the biggest sales period for Australian lamb in the region.
The month-long religious festival of Ramadan, which this year fell from May 6 to June 3, sees Muslims fast during the day, have evening prayer and then break the fast with a family meal known as Iftar.
The traditional Arabic meals generally served up for Iftar feature lamb prominently.
A television advertisement showing an Australian producer, portrayed by an actor, handing lamb to celebrity chef Tarek Ibrahim, reached more than 43 million television viewers across 10 countries.
Reaching more than 4m people, the campaign featured a strong social media component.
The campaign featured the phrase "meat from Down Under is on top for freshness".
Google advertisements had more than a million impressions and website views during the campaign came in at just under 80,000.
MLA international business manager for MENA Nick Meara said 64 per cent of the chilled sheepmeat imported into the region in 2018 was Australian.
"The aim was to have Australian lamb front and centre of the consumer's mind when they are shopping for Ramadan," he said.
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In the lead-up to Ramadan we also did some work with one of the high-profile television food networks, where we had local Arabic female chefs cooking their favourite Ramadan traditional great-tasting recipes and explaining why they prefer Australian lamb.
- NICK MEARA, MLA international business manager for MENA
