News & Events | Japan | Japanese meat industry and consumers divided on BSE testing policy

Japan

Japanese meat industry and consumers divided on BSE testing policy

Japanese consumers and meat industry members remain divided on the effectiveness of current safety measures for BSE — particularly Japan's policy that all cattle entering its food supply be tested for the disease.

Japanese consumers, distributors, restaurant operators and bureaucrats all agreed to disagree on that matter at a spirited exchange hosted by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Fears about recovery build as economic growth slows

Weakening personal consumption and capital outlays put an unexpected brake on the nation's economic growth in the April-June period, casting doubts over the sustainability of the ongoing recovery.

Real gross domestic product improved for the fifth straight quarter, but only by a disappointing 0.4 percent from the previous term, according to preliminary figures released Friday by the Cabinet Office.

The annualized 1.7-percent expansion fell far short of economists' forecasts. The growth rate slowed sharply from 6.6 percent in January-March and 7.4 percent in October-December.

Japan's convenience store sales hit record high in July

TOKYO, Aug. 20 Kyodo - Convenience store sales in Japan increased 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 602.7 billion yen in July, hitting all-time highs both in sales growth and value, an industry body said Friday. (19 :56)

Meat packer ex-chief pleads guilty to beef buyback fraud

OSAKA, Aug. 20 Kyodo - (EDS: ADDING INFO ON PROFITS IN 5TH GRAF) The former chairman of an Osaka-based meat packing company pleaded guilty Friday to swindling the government out of more than 5 billion yen by abusing a state beef-buyback program to calm BSE concerns. (19 :26)

Dollar weak vs. yen in Tokyo, hits 1-month low

TOKYO, Aug. 20 Kyodo - The U.S. dollar remained sluggish against the yen Friday in Tokyo, briefly falling to a one-month low below the 109 yen line following the release of brisk Japanese economic data. (17 :40)

Australia

WA live exporter sues Federal Government

A WA live export company is suing the Federal Government for refusing to grant an export permit for a shipment of livestock caught up in last year's contamination scare at Portland, Victoria.

Steve Meerwald from Wellard Rural Exports says a shipment of sheep, dairy heifers and bulls was put on hold, after allegations that animal activists had put ham in feedlot troughs.

Iraqi agriculture officials to study in Australia

Twenty-five officials from Iraq's Ministry of Agriculture have arrived in Australia, to learn new methods of farming. In the next four months they'll work towards a Graduate Certificate in Agribusiness, through Curtin University in Western Australia. Local company Coffey International is co-ordinating the training, through its subsidiary SAGRIC and AusAID.

NSW dragging the chain on ID scheme

New South Wales has been told to get a move on in preparing for the roll-out of a national ID scheme for sheep next July.
A national committee is working on plans for the mandatory scheme, which will require all sheep to be tagged with a plastic ear tag, containing a property identification code.