16 July 2004

Japan Favor Aussie Beef

A survey conducted recently in Japan revealed how the purchasing behaviour of Japanese food companies had changed since US beef imports were banned at the end of December 2003.  The results revealed that Australian beef is very highly regarded in Japan.

Initially, it was found that some companies resisted the move from US beef to other sources of supply. However in light of declining sales and profits, companies were prompted to change their behaviour, resulting in Australian and New Zealand beef appearing more commonly on foodservice menus across Japan.

It was also found that the market penetration of Australian beef was significantly higher than other imported beef types, with 100% of surveyed outlets currently purchasing Australian beef and 36% using New Zealand beef. Prior to the ban on US beef imports, 63% of surveyed outlets were using US beef.

Reasons cited for using Australian beef included stable supply, meat safety and low cost.  Reasons cited for using US beef (prior to the ban) included stable supply and supply of quality grainfed beef.  Meat safety was cited as the main reason for using beef from New Zealand.

More than 75% of respondents regarded Australian beef as a suitable substitute to US beef, with 44% considering beef from New Zealand to be a suitable supply source.  Only 25% of respondents considered domestic beef to be a suitable substitute to US beef.

Interestingly, 69% of respondents did not purchase processed beef from overseas, but 60% said they were interested in purchasing these items.  However, most companies were not prepared to purchase processed beef items from South America due to concerns over meat safety and high freight costs associated with importing product from this region.