November 10, 2008

Japan lifts ban on pork imports from Swedish meat plants

Pork imports from 2 Swedish meat plants will be resumed for Japan, after a suspension caused by the discovery of beef shipments was banned by Tokyo.

The ministry is taking the step after the Swedish government identified the cause of the beef shipments as a simple human error in cargo loading by warehousing operator Skara Frys, while Skara Frys and the Skara meat processing plant owned by Scan AB have taken measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

Pork imports from the two facilities were suspended in August, as beef filet was found in a cargo of pig bones.

Japan has banned beef imports from the EU since 2001, following the outbreak of mad cow disease.

In 2007, Japan imported a total of 3,120 tonnes of pork from Sweden, and the majority of the shipments were from Scan AB.