August 4, 2006

Japan beef imports up in June

Japanese beef imports during June totaled 48,124 tonnes, an increase of 83 percent on June 2005 levels.

The jump is largely due to imports being well below normal levels last year. Last June, the industry tried to avoid trigger levels that would have seen the tariff rebound to 50 percent for the remainder of the fiscal year, thus lowering imports.

Japan imported a total of 20,711 tonnes of chilled beef and 27,413 tonnes of frozen beef in June, increases of 29 percent and 168 percent, respectively.

Despite the strong on-year increases in June, imports of chilled beef for the June quarter were down 3 percent compared with the same quarter in 2005

Frozen imports were up 11 percent - well below the trigger level of a 17 percent rise on the average of the same quarters in 2002 and 2003.

Despite the resumption of US beef imports, levels are not expected to exceed trigger levels over the remainder of the Japanese fiscal year, ending in March 2007.

Beef imports from Australia made up 89 percent of Japan's total beef imports for the month, with 9 percent imported from New Zealand.