August 3, 2009

Philippines has relaxed the restriction on imports of Japanese beef, following an OIE report indicating that Japan has a controlled bovine spongiform encelopathy (BSE) risk.

Imports of Japanese beef into the Philippines are allowed on the condition that boneless and bone-in beef from cattle of all ages are devoid of any nerves and other BSE-specified risk materials.

Beef should also come only from healthy ambulatory and non-downer cattle and that the age of the slaughtered cattle should be certified by the Japanese government authority. The Philippines' Department of Agriculture also requires the inclusion of the production date on the packaging label.

In 2001, Philippines imposed a ban on imports of live cattle, sheep and goats and meat and meat products from these species, bovine embryo, meat and bone meal and other feed ingredients from Japan (when BSE was first detected in Japan).

In 2006, Philippines' former agriculture secretary partially lifted the ban on the condition that the beef must be derived from cattle less than 30 months of age.

Japan is not a major beef supplier to the Philippines, with a minor volume of beef imported for local restaurants in 2001.