Japan | Domestic Beef Production Recovers In 2002 | Despite reduced levels o...

Despite reduced levels of beef consumption in Japan, domestic beef production is higher in 2002 compared with 2001. Production decreased in the last quarter of 2001 in the wake of the Japanese bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases, but started to recover in January and was 17.7 percent higher in March 2002 compared to March 2001. Wholesale domestic carcass prices consequently rose in March.

Japan’s imported beef inventory was 109,063 metric tons (mt) in March, 15.4% higher than a year earlier. Most of the inventory is assessed to be U.S. short plate, purchased before the Japanese BSE cases outbreak at higher than after-BSE-cases prices.