September 3, 2010

Japan may boost meat imports next year

Japan may boost purchases of beef and pork next year, a US government agency said.

Beef imports may rise 1.3% to 704,000 tonnes (1.552 billion pounds) from an estimated 695,000 tonnes this year, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) said. The US share will be steady at 105,000 tonnes. Japan only imports US beef from cattle 20 months of age or younger, since the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in the US herd.

"The Japanese beef market clearly lacks a sufficient supply of affordable beef to meet the average consumer's needs," the FAS said. "Overall market growth has been seriously hampered by a lack of medium-quality grain fed cuts that only the US can provide."

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in livestock herds may reduce Japanese pork and beef production by 1-2% this year. The outbreak that lasted from April to July may have cost the Japanese government tens of billions of yen, according to the FAS report.

About 288,000 pigs and cows were slaughtered due to the highly contagious disease, according to the Miyazaki prefecture government.

Meanwhile, Japan's pork imports may rise to 1.157 million tonnes in 2011, up 0.5% from 1.151 million tonnes last year, the FAS said. Purchases from the US will be flat at 514,000 tonnes, according to the report.

Rising pork imports will be due to an increase in prepared/processed products from China, rather than the increase of seasoned ground pork from the US and Canada, the FAS said.

Japan, the largest pork importer, trails only the US and Russia for the amount of beef it buys from overseas, according to USDA data.