MAD COW DISEASE

Shipment of veal chops shuts down U.S. beef exports to Japan

Three boxes containing just 121 pounds of veal on Friday shut down U.S. beef exports to Japan - five weeks after a two-year ban was lifted - because a sample shipment by a Brooklyn packer contained bone-in cuts in violation of Tokyo's tighter food-safety regulations. The company, Atlantic Veal & Lamb, called it "an honest mistake." The new Japanese ban sent shock waves through the American beef industry, which had hoped resumed exports would help recapture a $1.4 billion market. Once the biggest overseas customer of U.S. beef, Japan banned imports after a mad-cow outbreak in Washington state in December 2003. Australia has filled much of the demand since. "Gosh, it's awful," said Will Skaggs, 32, a Texas rancher who runs a Beefmaster breed cow-calf operation near DeLeon. "This comes at a real bad time. We're already battling drought and raging wildfires and this thing comes out. People were hanging in there, thinking prices will stay up." Since the Japanese market reopened last month, exports have only been a trickle - just 4 percent of the purchases made in the same time period of 2003, said Steve Kay, editor of Cattle Buyers Weekly of Petaluma, Calif. Large shipments by sea of chilled beef began only last week with an estimated 1,300 to 1,600 metric tons of beef, valued at $12 million to $16 million, reportedly stranded between ports. "It is regrettable," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told a news conference. Koizumi said he approved the agriculture minister's suggestion to ban U.S. imports. Japan's Kyodo News Service reported that three boxes of a 41-box, 860-pound test shipment contained veal with backbone when inspected Friday at Narita Airport outside Tokyo....

U.S. to probe beef shipment to Japan

In what promises to be a costly blunder, a Brooklyn-based meat company sent a shipment of veal to Japan that included cattle backbones, material the Japanese consider at risk for mad cow disease. The announcement immediately set off a round of mea culpas from the U.S. beef industry and the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns dispatched a team of inspectors to Japan and vowed to bolster inspections at U.S. plants that export beef. He also prohibited the company that shipped the veal, Atlantic Veal & Lamb, from exporting any more beef to Japan. "This is an unacceptable failure on our part to meet the requirements of our agreement with this trading partner, the country of Japan," Johanns said. "We are taking this matter seriously, recognizing the importance of our beef export market, and we are acting swiftly and firmly. "This just simply should not have happened," he added. "I am very unhappy about this. Our inspector should have caught this." While offering the Japanese government an array of measures to reassure them about U.S. beef, including a promise to reprimand the USDA inspector who checked out the problem shipment, U.S. officials - and the beef industry - sought to convince consumers that there was no public-health crisis. Rather, they insisted, the United States had simply violated trade protocol....

USDA pledges stricter scrutiny of beef exports

U.S. meat inspectors were dispatched to Japan to check American beef shipments detained there and U.S. beef processors will be under stricter scrutiny to meet Tokyo's requirements, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said on Friday. A team of USDA inspectors will re-examine U.S. shipments detained at Japanese ports. "That product isn't going to move into the Japanese marketplace until they are satisfied that we have met their concerns and their requirements," he said. Meanwhile, all U.S. meat plants must now have two USDA inspectors review shipments to confirm that rules are followed. Surprise inspections are planned to ensure compliance. On Tuesday, the USDA will meet with beef companies to review compliance with the U.S.-Japan trade agreement....

S.Korea sticks to US beef imports, monitors closely

South Korea will not change its plan to resume importing U.S. beef but will inspect it carefully after Japan found risk material that could cause mad cow disease in American meat, a farm ministry official said on Friday. Just a month after a ban on imports of the meat was lifted, Japan said imported beef from the U.S. contained risk materials, which could cause the brain-wasting disease. "At this time, Japan's case will not affect the agreement between South Korea and the United States on resuming American beef imports at the end of March," the official of Agriculture Ministry said. "But we will watch this case very carefully and be cautious in inspecting facilities in U.S., " he added. South Korea, once the world third-largest export market for U.S. beef, announced last week it would restart U.S. beef imports in late March. But Seoul will set import restrictions, only allowing in beef from cattle aged less than 30 months and then on condition that any bone was removed before shipping....

Texas ranchers weighing impact of Japan's beef ban

Texas' cattle ranchers are anxiously waiting to see whether Japan's halt on U.S. beef shipments turns into a temporary setback or a permanent roadblock. "This is a technical breach and not a food safety issue," said Matt Brockman, executive vice president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in Fort Worth. "I would hope that trade can resume soon." For the state's cattle feeders, Japan has long been considered a key market. The country imported $1.4 billion worth of U.S. beef in 2003. And the U.S. Agriculture Department had forecast 287 million pounds of beef could be exported to Japan this year – about 31 percent of 2003 levels. "The potential of the Japanese market is pretty significant," said Burt Rutherford, a spokesman for the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, which represents 195 feed yards in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico....