March 11, 2004

 

 

Japan To Import 10% More US Pork

 

US pork exports to Japan is set for a 10% increase in 2004 as local consumers turn to pigmeat as an alternative following the ban on US beef.

 

Pork shipments to Japan, nearly half of total U.S. exports of the meat, may rise to about $900 million this year from $800 million in 2003, Philip Seng, chief executive of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said in an interview.

 

"We've seen interest in our pork go up quite dramatically," Seng said. "Pork is going to get more attention now. That's good because the pork market will grow, but there's tremendous competition from Denmark, France and many other countries."

 

The increase in pork exports may provide little relief for U.S. meatpacking companies, given that the beef export market was worth $3.8 billion, compared with $1.5 billion for pork. Japan alone accounted for $1.5 billion of U.S. beef exports, Seng said.

 

The U.S. might also face higher tariffs should quarterly pork shipments rise 70 percent from the same period a year earlier, Seng said.

 

Yoshinoya D&C Co. and other Japanese restaurants that served U.S. beef had to find alternatives after the government banned imports following the discovery of a case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in Washington state.

 

U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary J.B. Penn led a delegation that met with Japanese counterparts in January, seeking a softening of the ban. A second meeting, which Penn said at the time would come in February, has yet to take place. U.S. officials are still discussing how to approach the talks, Seng said.

 

Seng said there were no "official signs" the Japanese are prepared to compromise on the beef ban. "We're looking at the areas we can maneuver, but Japan has given very little room to do that."

 

Tokyo-based Yoshinoya has since March 1 offered rice topped with pork instead of beef, company spokesman Haruhiko Kizu said.

 

The pork dish "seems to be helping encourage customers," Kizu said, adding that sales at existing shops in February dropped 21 percent. "But it's difficult to tell right now the extent to which the pork dishes will help sales this month."

 

Australia, which supplies 49 percent of the beef consumed in Japan, has said it can't increase shipments sufficiently to make up for the loss of imports from the U.S., which supplied 46 percent of the country's beef.