JAPAN: Ban on U.S. Beef a Reminder of Dependence on Food Imports

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 16 2004 (IPS) - The closure across Japan of hundreds of stores selling ‘gyudon’ – the immensely popular bowls of beef on rice – has sent a distasteful reminder to many of the precariousness of their food supply, analysts here say.

The beef used in the dish is now in short supply in the wake of Japan’s four-week ban on cheap imports of U.S. beef, imposed after an outbreak of ‘mad cow’ disease there.

”Gyudon has long been considered a staple diet for the Japanese. The end of that dish has raised fear on food safety and underscored our heavy dependence on foreign suppliers,” says Kentaro Yoshida, an agricultural expert at Tsukuba University.

This measure has forced Yoshinoya D & C, the leading ‘gyudon’ chain, to stop serving the dish the bought it fame even in other parts of the world. The firm buys 90 percent of its beef from the United States.

In a statement, Yoshinoya said the ban effectively ended its reliance on cheap beef imports, which had enabled it to produce gyudon for less than four U.S. dollars a bowl. ”Sadly, our stocks of U.S. beef have run out (as of Feb.11). New menus serving chicken or pork will be served instead,” said the statement.

Japan is the biggest market for U.S. beef, buying one-third of total beef exports annually valued at over 1 billion U.S. dollars.

According to government statistics, Japan imported 59 percent of its beef, 29 percent of its chicken and 46 percent of its pork in fiscal year 2002.

Despite the lure of cheap prices-which are less than half of beef produced domestically – the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries took the contentious decision to ban imports in December following the outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States.

Tokyo is demanding that United States test all cattle destined for Japan for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, which can be fatal to humans. However, talks with Washington on the matter have failed.

The deadlock over beef is one of several other problems now affecting Japan’s food supply from abroad.

Japan has also banned chicken from Thailand and China as a result of reports of bird flu which has killed several people in South-east Asia and led to the culling of millions of chicken.

”The bans on important food items is a wake-up call,” says Yoko Tomiyama of the Japan Consumer Association. ”The key to gain consumer confidence is regaining trust.”

The ban on Thai chicken for example, is expected to batter Skylark Vo, Japan’s largest operator of family restaurants that buys 80 percent of its chicken from Thailand.

Skylark reports that it is now looking for other providers such as in Malaysia and as far away as Brazil. It depends in a major way on imports from China as well, but the avian flu there means purchases are out of the question.

Thailand is the largest exporter of chicken to Japan. China rose to third place in 2002. Imports from the two countries account for a combined 17 percent of chicken consumed in Japan.

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture report that reliance on cheap imports, including prepared food such as fried chicken, have been growing by 170 percent over the past five years following the popularity of convenience stores and fast food shops.

Conveyor-belt sushi restaurants are now importing prepared seafood from Vietnam and Thailand – and these reduce their costs drastically and help keep the shops competitive.

These imported products are much cheaper because labour costs are a tenth of Japan’s, point out business operators.

The latest red-alerts leading to import bans have also forced a rethinking in Japan, indicating the need for changes that could bring far-reaching consequences to trade in the Asia-Pacific unless urgent steps are taken to regain the trust of anxious consumers.

”The most pressing step to be taken is to develop a regional food safety standard system. Japan is the biggest market for agricultural exporting Asian countries. This trade will be badly damaged unless there is a safety system in place,” points out Daisuke Hiratsuka, economist at the Institute of Developing Economies.

But putting in place such a system is easier said than done. Experts point to vast economic gaps between Asian countries that would make it difficult for some to maintain standards expected by the richer countries such as Japan.

A case in point is the bitter tussle between two rich countries like Japan and the United States on the beef issue – since Tokyo demands that every U.S. cow slaughtered be screened for BSE . This is a highly expensive and long drawn-out process that Japan itself was forced to undertake when domestic beef producers were badly affected after the discovery of BSE in 2001.

Washington has rejected Japan’s demand, pointing out that scientific assessments are sufficient.

Hiratsuka however argues that unless common safety standards are put in place, agricultural trade will not get off the ground as expected. He argues that the problem can no longer be seen as affecting only exporters because food bans hurt both consumers as well as businesses in Japan that lose badly during a crisis.

Surveys taken in January showed that 90 percent of consumers expressed grave concern over food imports and called for self-sufficiency in food supply.

Kiwamu Yokokawa, chairman of the Japan Food Service Association, urges consumers to consider factors other than cheap prices, pointing out ”the Japanese diet has become global and cheap is not the only criteria when selecting food”.

Japan has set a goal of raising its current ratio of 40 percent in food self-sufficiency by 5 percent in 2010.