July 18, 2008

As food inflation increases and budgets tightened, Japan is importing more US pork which has become cheaper due to the weakened US dollar.

Japan imported a total of 135,908 tonnes of US pork during January to May, up 19 percent on-year.

Japan's tough economy and global food inflation have forced the market to source less costly food ingredients for both the retail and food service sectors. The depreciating US dollar helped in increasing US pork imports as well, as it averaged 13-percent below previous year against the Japanese yen.

The US also has a record high pork production, up 95 percent on-year to 196,000 tonnes in May, pushing US processors to increase export volumes.

The average retail price of imported pork loin was JPY 1,650 (US$15.5) per kg in May.