Tokyo - Nippon Meat Packers Inc said it planned to double imports of U.S. chilled pork to make up for shortages caused by a ban on shipments from Taiwan.
Japan banned imports of Taiwanese pork in March, following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease on the island.
Nippon Meat Packers said its chilled pork shipments to Japan from a U.S. plant were expected to total about 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes for the year starting this month, up from 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes in the previous 12 months.
"With no prospect in sight that Japan will resume pork imports from Taiwan, we have been under pressure to depend on alternative sources to cover the shortage," a company spokesman said.
Nippon Meat Packers, one of Japan's largest meat-packing firms, produces pork at a plant in Nebraska in the United States that it jointly owns with major U.S. meat packer and processor IBP.
Taiwan accounted for about 40 percent of Japan's total pork imports of 650,000 tonnes in calendar 1996.
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