November 22, 2010

Japan's Zensho to partially resume US beef

Major foodservice group, Zensho, also a volume user of Australian beef in Japan, has announced that it will begin using US beef from December, the first time since 2004.

Zensho fulfils its beef requirements mostly from Australia, but also uses small volumes of New Zealand, Mexican and Canadian beef. The company will serve the US beef in its yakiniku restaurants (approximately 100 outlets), while they continue to use Australian beef for their gyudon (beef rice bowl) dishes across its 2,000 plus outlets in the country.

In the Australian beef export market last week, the slight depreciation of the Australia dollar from the previous week did not influence export prices to Japan in US dollar terms, underpinned by the ongoing demand from Australian domestic and international markets. November export volumes to Japan have been consistent so far, reaching over 18,000 tonnes as of November 15.