03/06/07 Keys to Japanese beef market

American Rancher March 6, 2007 The President and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation Phil Seng says there are many factors influencing the flow of U.S. beef back into Japan. And Seng told reporters on a recent teleconference that capturing the interest of Japanese consumers is not the biggest problem. Seng: "Where ever we are able to have our product displayed. Where ever we are able to place our product it's been selling out very quickly. Even Noshenoya right now is only able to sell U.S. beef four hours a day because of limited supply. So we see getting more supply into that market is very, very critical." Seng says there is not just one view of U.S. beef in Japan. Seng: "There's maybe three kinds of people. There are people who are against our imports. This is like many ministries. There are people who are for it and there is about one-third of the people who are on the fence. They don't know which way to go. It is important that we appeal to the Japanese with sound reasoning. And we are sensitive to their situation as they try to work through this domestically. They know what we want. We need to keep pressing that but we have to be very discrete about how we do it." Seng says the U.S. beef industry is making progress in Japan, but competition is stiff with other beef producing countries stepping up their investments in marketing to Japan. I'm Bob Hoff.