An Taoiseach Enda Kenny will travel to Japan in the first week of December as part of an Irish trade mission. Japan is among the top five global importers of agricultural produce, with an annual spend of more than US$40bn.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny will travel to Japan in the first week of December as part of an Irish trade mission.
Japan is among the top five global importers of agricultural produce, with an annual spend of more than US$40bn.
It is among the top three importers of beef and veal annually, with a spend greater than US$2bn.
Could this mission deliver more good news for Irish beef producers?
Japan introduced a ban on beef imports from the EU in 2001 following the BSE outbreak.
It was 2003 when imports from the US were dropped, at which point the US enjoyed a 53% share of the Japanese beef import market.
Trade resumed for the US in 2005 for cattle slaughtered at less than 21 months of age.
In late 2012, the Japanese Drug and Food Safety Council accepted the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s proposal on allowing beef under 30 months from the US, Canada, France and the Netherlands.
EU officials hailed this as a first positive step although it took longer than had been anticipated.
Encouraging signal
The decision was seen as an encouraging signal to other member states that hoped to apply to export beef to Japan, especially those member states whose equally high food safety has already been internationally recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
According to the OIE BSE status of members, the Netherlands has a ‘negligible BSE risk’ status.
France and Ireland share the same status, ‘controlled BSE risk’. Given recent positive steps from the US, there could be positive news from Japan in the not so distant future.
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