September 6, 2010

Japan's July beef imports slip 13%

Japan imported 43,211 tonnes swt of beef during July, down 13% on the same month last year, as the market continued to be challenged by the slow economy, coupled with the impact on consumer spending from the very hot summer, according to the Ministry of Finance.

While imports from Australia during July declined by 16% on-year to 29,574 tonnes, US volumes also dropped by 12% to 8,549 tonnes. This was the first on-year fall in US beef volumes since Japan resumed imports in July 2006.

In the Australian beef export market, Japanese buyers remained cautious with their commitments, while export prices to Japan in Australian dollar terms declined from last week due to the higher Australian currency. Trimmings continued to attract reasonable demand from Japan, but some frozen items were diverted to other markets, such as Russia, due to Japanese bids being below expectations.