August 7, 2006

First shipment of US beef arrives in Japan

The shipment of US beef which arrived at Narita airport on Monday morning (Aug 7) marked the first shipment since Japan lifted an import ban over mad cow disease, the Japanese government said.

The importer of the 5-tonnes shipment is Costco Wholesale Japan Inc., the Japanese unit of Costco Wholesale Corp of the US. The company would distribute the beef to its five outlets in Japan and put the beef on sale later this week after it goes through quarantine and customs procedures, company officials said.

Industry officials said last week that most consumers would have to wait at least until the middle of August before American beef becomes widely available.

Japan's leading supermarket chains have said they do not plan to sell American beef or use it for ready-made meals sold at their stores for the time being.

Japan banned imports of US beef for two years after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the United States in December 2003. The ban was lifted last December but reinstated in January this year again after a veal shipment from the United States was found to contain backbone.

The ban was lifted again July 27 after Japanese government inspectors finished their inspections of 35 meatpacking plants exporting to Japan.