SAN DIEGO - Japanese beef consumption is rebounding following the impact of recent bacterial contamination scares, an official with the U.S. Meat Export Federation said.
"The negative effects of E. coli and BSE are fading away," Hiroyoshi Kato, the USMEF's Japan director, said. "We can expect a recovery of consumption by the end of the year," Kato said.
Japanese beef consumption for 1997 was estimated at 1.015 million tonnes by USDA, up from 1.012 million in 1996 but down from 1.063 million in 1995.
The E. coli bacteria, certain strains of which can cause sickness or death, has been found recently in some samples of U.S. beef. BSE refers to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "Mad Cow" disease, which devastated the British beef industry last year.
Japan is one of the U.S.' biggest customers for beef. In 1996, the U.S. exported 514,658 tonnes of beef or variety meat products worth $1.93 billion to Japan, according to the USDA. This was up from 488,552 tonnes in 1995.
But Japanese beef producers, with Japanese government support, have exploited the food safety issue with an aggressive advertising campaign touting domestic meat as safe, according to a USMEF market profile. Meanwhile, Japan's multi-layered distribution system has continued to impede the development of the market for U.S. suppliers.
This has prompted the USMEF to launch an "umbrella campaign" in Japan, Kato said, to promote U.S. meat as safe and high in quality through advertising, seminars and cooking schools.
"There is a gap in the perception of U.S. meat between the industry and the consumer," Kato said. "Japanese consumers have big concerns on where their beef comes from."
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