Creekstone Farms awarded North America’s Best Steak at 2023 World Steak Challenge

A steak from Arkansas helped Creekstone Farms, a United States beef supplier, take home the coveted title of North America’s Best Steak for its ribeye wet-aged steak at a recent awards ceremony.

According to a press release, this is the first time the milestone has been achieved by a U.S. producer in the World Steak Challenge. The World Steak Challenge gives steak producers from across the globe a unique opportunity to benchmark product quality, breed credentials, and processing standards on an international stage.

Ryan Meyer, senior vice president of cattle procurement and marketing at Creekstone Farms, Arkansas City, Kansas, said the process to achieve this wasn’t something that happened over night. It’s been in the works for a while.

Creekstone is a fairly small packer, and according to Meyer, processes about 2,000 cattle a day and are less than one and a half percent of the total volume in the U.S.

“But as far as exports to Europe go, we would be in the top three volume-wise,” he said.

In order to go to Europe, cattle cannot be treated with hormones and that is achieved through third-party verification by IMI Global. Once the cattle are verified in the program the product is eligible for export.

“Within that first year of business we were processing 1,000 cattle a month ourselves. So we had tripled the volume,” he said. “Then the other companies started to use the same process. But it was really a cool experience for our little company because we were able to basically create a viable market where there was nothing before. And so we’ve always been pretty strong in that part of the world.”

As for getting the steak into the contest, Creekstone Farms partnered with two importers.

“So they take product from us, work through it, figure out which products that they want to enter and then they enter them into this competition,” Meyer said.

Meyer said they shipped product like they normally do and left the decisions up to the importers.

“We know that we have a very high end, very high quality, corn-fed beef product and it was just great to validate it,” he said. “We’ve validated through sales of our Prime products, whether that be on online or to foodservice distributors in the U.S. or with the distribution to fine dining restaurants all over Europe and Asia too.”

Meyer said it was important to be able to go up against the best products in the world and come out with the win for North America.

“I think it validates that the U.S. in general, as far as high-quality eating experience, is definitely the best in North America,” he said. “Our reputation has always been about having a quality, highly marbled product. If you go to Las Vegas or New York, you can find Creekstone on menus all over the place there.”

That recognition helps the rest of the world see the U.S. and North America as the epicenter for high-quality beef, and Creekstone, as a company that’s focused on the best of the best, can produce it and fulfill what customers want.

“I think it’s great for the country, great for Kansas and the center of the U.S. in particular,” Meyer said. “Our claim to fame is our Midwestern corn fed, buttery flavored product and we found that the world kind of likes it too.”

Jack’s Creek of Australia claimed the overall title of the World’s Best Steak, with its grain-fed Cross Breed Wagyu Sirloin, which was also named the World’s Best Sirloin and World’s Best Grain-Fed Steak, as well as Oceania’s Best Steak.

World Steak Challenge winners list:

• World’s Best Steak, Oceania’s Best Steak & Best Sirloin — Jack’s Creek Australian Cross Breed Wagyu Sirloin;
• Asia’s Best Steak & World’s Best Wagyu Steak — Ito Wagyu A5+ Japanese Sirloin from Itoham Yonekyu Holdings;
• Europe’s Best Steak & World’s Best Filet Steak — Norland Heifer German Filet from Danish Crown;
• North America’s Best Steak — Creekstone Farms Ribeye Wet-Aged Steak from the USA;
• South America Best Steak — Argentina Signature Ribeye Steak from Azul Natural Beef; and
• World’s Best Ribeye Steak — 55-Day Aged Ribeye from New Zealand from Alliance Group.

One of the importers that worked with Creekstone, Patrick Pouw, manager of Nice to Meat International said the steak which won was a win for all those who work at Creekstone Farms.

“The farm has the genetics, the feeding options, and the facilities to process the cattle in a humane way,” Pouw said. “We are thrilled that Creekstone won the gold medal.”

For more information about the award visit worldsteakchallenge.com and for more information about Creekstone Farms visit creekstonefarms.com.

Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].