July 30, 2004
Japan's Beef Imports Up
Japan's beef imports during April rose 44.6 percent over the previous month to 42,225 MT as demand increased. However, this was 3.5 percent less than April 2003.
In particular, fresh, chilled beef imports increased 75.2 percent over March to 19,413 MT. This is partly due to the lifting of Japan's chilled beef safeguard on April 1, which decreased the tariff rate from 50.0 percent back to 38.5 percent. This was down 22.7 percent from April 2003.
Imports of frozen product, which accounted for 53.9 percent of the total, equaled 22,743 MT, up 26.0 percent from the previous month and up 22.5 percent from April 2003. During April, Japan imported 38,130 MT of beef from Australia.
This was 45.4 percent higher than March, and 71.7 percent higher than April 2003 with stocks of U.S. beef in Japan running out and forcing Japan's market to turn to Australia for more beef. Additionally, year-to-date beef imports from Australia were 28.4 percent above last year, amounting to 119,574 MT. Australia was the main provider of beef to Japan with 90.0 percent of the total imports.
Due to the ban Japan placed on U.S. beef after the discovery of the single case of BSE in the U.S. in December 2003, Japan did not import any beef from the U.S. during April. In light of the ban, Japan relied upon New Zealand to fill part of the void. Specifically during June, Japan's beef imports from New Zealand rose 33.9 percent over the previous month to 3,892 MT. This was also 130.6 percent greater than June 2003. Total year-to-date imports from New Zealand reached 11,560 MT, 125.1 percent above the previous year. Overall, Japan's year-to-date beef imports were 30.3 percent less than the same period a year ago, totaling 132,813 MT, due to the absence of beef from the U.S.
Japan's total beef marketings during April equaled 79,451 MT. Although this was 28.8 percent more than the previous month, it was 1.6 percent less than a year ago. Imported beef marketings increased 44.7 percent over the previous month to 46,760 MT. Marketings of domestic beef rose 11.2 percent over the previous month to 32,690 MT. Japan's beef stocks for the month ending April totaled 62,101 MT. This was down 7.0 percent from March and was down 30.1 percent from a year ago. Imported beef stocks declined 7.8 percent to 53,513 MT, and domestic beef stocks declined 2.0 percent to 8,588 MT.