August 28, 2006

Japanese restaurant chain to carry US beef

A Japanese restaurant chain plans to resume serving US beef soon at dozens of its branches, company officials said Saturday (Aug 26).

Zenshoku, based in the western Osaka prefecture, said it would offer US beef at its 57 Korean barbecue restaurants across Japan, but company spokeswoman Tae Okuda said no date has been set yet.

This would make it one the first few restaurant chains in Japan to begin offering US beef again. Other chains such as Yoshinoya and Yakiniku has promised to use US beef, but only when volumes arrive in bulk to depress currently high prices.

Zenshoku's president had visited two food processing plants in the US and confirmed they meet safety standards, Okuda said.

The chain plans to show a videotape of the trip at its outlets to ease customers' concerns over the safety of US beef, she said.

Okuda said consumers should be entitled to choices. Compared with other meats, US beef is more succulent and are thus more suitable for Korean barbecues, she said.

Since Japan lifted the ban on US beef last month, businesses have been slow to carry US beef.

US officials are hopeful that Japan would import almost US$400 million worth of beef this fiscal year. That would account for one-fifth of the Japanese market, the USDA said.

Although this would still be far below export levels before 2003 when US beef was banned in Japan because of mad cow disease, it would still chip away at Australia's share of the market.

Economist Monte Vandeveer estimates the US would export close to one-third of its pre-mad cow levels to Japan in fiscal 2007.