Thanks, and thanks to everyone who has responded so far.
This is actually kind of depressing - for such a large country to have so few “brand name” foods and drinks exported seems to indicate our tastes are so bland, or quality so crappy, that nobody outside of this country even wants it. Granted, we are great here with exporting the raw ingredients - corn, wheat, nuts, etc. but other than Spam (oh boy), there doesn’t seem to be any “Wow, I want that American brand of [_______]!”
European cheeses and wines, pastas from Italy, chocolates from France, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland - all of these things are popular here in the US and fairly easy to find even with the premium prices.
Maybe this is a whoosh, but if not I find it hard to believe there is much wine from anywhere in the U.S. being sold in Europe.
In 2010, the US exported $435 million of wine to the EU. My rough calc from that article is about 7% of US wine production goes to the EU.
Why would you think that?
More than $400M worth of California wine was sold in the EU in 2011.
You can probably thank Robert Parker for a lot of that wine exportation.
There’s also a large export industry for beef from Central Florida, among other things.
Also from that link: citrus (especially grapefruit juice), tomatoes, dairy, sugar and poultry. They specifically mention that most of this goes to the Latin American market, as it’s dealing with the CAFTA benefits for Florida farmers.
Nope, British supermarkets typically divide their wine aisles by region (Australia, US, South America, France etc.), and the US section is wine from California.
I don’t know whether you misunderstood the part of my post where I said the supermarkets here stock dozens of American brands? It’s not that no-one wants American products, its just that shipping (say) billions of packets of Kellog’s cornflakes across the Atlantic is a lot less economical than building a factory in Manchester, and supplying their UK customers from there.
You and I read the same thread and came up with opposite interpretations. American brands are known and used or consumed all over the world. They may not be synonymous with “the very best” but, contrawise, they’re surely not synonymous with “bland” or “crap quality”.
The sites provided did not spell out “Americans mostly export ingredients, and import processed foods.” The US has a trade surplus for processed food. The “European” products you’re thinking of might well be faux imports, incidentally. I recall an incident a while ago where an Italian group complained about how Australian made and owned pasta will appear on the shelf with an Italian flag on it. Grey Poupon mustard was an example of this sort of marketing.
And yes, I assure you there is a demand for specifically American brands and products. Jim Beam and Jack Daniels? I can get them in any bottle shop here in Brisbane, along with other American brands like Smirnoff, which is said to be the best selling distilled spirit in the world. At the convenience store next door there will be Kettle chips (based in Oregon), Pringles (sold in over 140 countries), Starburst (manufactured by Wrigley, and you can buy their gum), and maybe a dozen varieties of American brands of soft drinks-- so many that Australian brands are also-rans in their home market. Oh yeah, the shop is a 7-11, incidentally.
I didn’t really mean to go on like this but your post was so full of misguided pity for the poor American food and drink makers and nobody was addressing it. (On preview I see WotNot did so, but hey, sunk costs.)
Precisely. Branded grocery products are essentially “staples” and are typically processed in the country in which they are sold. America exports tons of agricultural products which end up in people’s stomachs all over the world, but it makes far less sense to bulk ship corn flakes versus just bulk shipping corn.
Likewise, any branded grocery product made by a foreign company is probably made here. Products that are genuinely imported and sold in grocery stores tend to be “premium” products like imported beers, wines, spirits, or chocolates, or certain items from the fresh product and fresh meat section. For example I can guarantee any Nestle bottled water isn’t being bottled in Switzerland (and by U.S. law spring water has to divulge its source on the package, and Nestle Pure Life and etc seems to be bottled here.) But when you go to the top shelf Evian and Perrier bottled water is genuinely imported.
No, I didn’t misunderstand, and you are totally correct. As I mentioned, Pepsi and Coke of course always bottle in that host country, and I can see where Kellog’s, Heinz and Sara Lee would do the same.
There are indeed several brands that sell well in the UK of products that are the same as in the US - and now that you mention it, I do recall seeing (almost) all of them when living in Germany.
I corrected myself in the above post, and trust me - this all has nothing to do with “miguided pity for the poor American food and drink makers”! To the contrary, I was trying to think of a truly American product that I would expect to see, and want, when travelling abroad!
I lived in Germany for 14 years and missed Skippy peanut butter, and that was about it. With the beers, wines, cheeses, sausages, pastas, breads, pastries and other goodies in Europe, I never complained when going grocery shopping!
I was trying to find out if maybe there is some name brand product we produce here that is “special” - something that an Australian, or Dane, or Italian or whomever would snap up saying, “this American brand is the best [_______] there is!”
As WotNot said. One of the challenges I faced when putting together my earlier post that mentioned Jim Beam, Pay Day bars, and Spam; was that while many American brand names came to mind, only a few of the products carrying those brand names are actually imported. Heinz Ketchup, Lay’s potato chips, M&Ms, French’s mustard, Kellogg’s cereals–all are made here in Canada by the Canadian branches of the American company. To the best of my knowledge, they are made with local ingredients where possible (Heinz uses locally grown tomatoes in its ketchup and Kellogg’s uses locally-grown corn), but imported where necessary (we don’t grow cocoa beans for M&Ms’ chocolate); and the products follow, as closely as possible, the original recipe used in the United States.
I suppose that what does get exported are those products which simply cannot come from anyplace else for various reasons. You can distill a whisky from corn anywhere corn grows, but it won’t be Kentucky Bourbon whisky unless it comes from Kentucky–so Jim Beam Bourbon is exported to those who want real Kentucky Bourbon whisky. Tabasco sauce is made only in Louisiana; other hot sauces may be just as hot, but they won’t be Tabasco. These and other American exports are quality goods, to be sure; but perhaps the appeal–and thus, the international demand–also lies in the exclusivity.
When it comes to food and drink there’s not much uniformity of opinion. Ask 10 beer dorks what the best beer in the world is and you’ll get at least 20 answers. American brands that are the best there is? Well, as Spoons just said, there are the exclusive ones, which amounts to a tautology. Tabasco Sauce really is the best Tabasco Sauce.
Then there’s the ones where other countries don’t really compete because they don’t like it. Yankee peanut butter is pretty damn good compared to Australian peanut butter, but the Aussies don’t care enough to import Skippy, just as yanks won’t be a major market for Vegemite anytime soon. This is even though Vegemite is the best Vegemite in the world.
There probably are heaps of well regarded high end American foods that I don’t know about because I’m not a foodie. Food is one thing the US does well in on the world market-- it is the only sector where the US has a trade surplus with China.
Not food nor drink but you used to export Bounce dryer sheets. I wish you still did. (Actually, maybe you still do but we don’t seem to import them any more, unfortunately.)
Some of our basic condiments and products that have a “terroir” and “origination” here in the Americas are probably the best of any other in the World. Take peppers and tomatoes or Maple syrup. I’d still put up a bottle of American Heinz over any foreign brewed bottle. But the improted Mexican and Soth American peppers that tabasco uses now have seriously damaged their product. Just like Heinz has taken a hit from their reliance on centralized farms that aren’t local to the factory… instead they get the tomatoes pasted from California. More outsourcing at work. And well, you just can’t beat American Maple syrup for indigenous reasons. American corn is the best.
Our canned products, soups and such, are easily shipped, long lasting, and not too shabby or hands above, compared to some foreign knockoffs or versions. I believe there was probably an equal trade between Gourmet canned escargot from Spain or France and American, canned, turtle soup starting about a century ago. Milk powders and flavorings are a pretty popular thing as exemplefied by Ovaltine NesQuik and Hershey’s syrup.
Philadelphia cream cheese has to be popular… can’t make a proper American Style NYC style cheesecake without it. Just wouldn’t be right. I had some really really great cheesecake in Europe, but nothing as good and rich as ours.
I just had a look at the cans in in my pantry:
Campbell’s Chunky soup: Product of Canada
Hunt’s tomato paste: Product of Canada
Kraft salad dressings (not in cans, but what the hey): Product of Canada
but
Hunt’s Manwich sauce: Product of USA
Stagg Chili: Product of USA
Old El Paso Refried Beans: Product of USA
Of course, we have a number of canned products that carry brand names that compete with the above (Habitant, Primo, Unico, etc.), that are, I’d say, on par with the American versions of the same products.
Nope,the Candian versions are inferior. Never be like the real thing. You can plagiarize all you want, it will never meet the manufacturing and terroir quality of the American Original.