Japan open to more US, Australian beef

Japan's growing demand for beef spells good news to its two long-standing beef exporters – the US and Australia, following recent Japan-US discussion on relaxing US beef import restrictions, imposed over concerns about mad cow disease.

"BSE issue was starting to lose momentum in Japan, with more people now eating beef," said Meat and Livestock Australia's regional manager in Japan, Glen Feist, who also met with the US delegation led by the USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack last week, to discuss about re-opening its beef market for imports.

Research showed that beef consumption is on the rise in Japan, compared to a slump in consumption of seafood, Feist added.

Australia sent almost 360,000 tonnes of beef to Japan last year, a 5000-tonne decline from 2008 and a bigger decline from 2007, which was 378,000 tonnes.

In comparison, the US sent 275,000 tonnes last year, a sharp increase from 231,000 tonnes in 2008 and 160,000 tonnes in 2007 - the year following the clamp-down on imports.

However, the Japanese market trusted Australia's strong traceability and health testing and would remain an export partner for Australian beef, according to Feist.

While Australia may lose market share to the US in future, the volume of Australian beef exported to Japan shouldn't decline, due to rising beef consumption in the Asian country, he added.

Japan banned US beef imports in 2003 after mad cow disease was discovered. Imports were resumed in 2006, but only for cattle aged less than 20 months.