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Northey focuses on pork in Japan

While U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack works this week on normalizing beef trade with Japan, Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey wants to be sure Japan imports more U.S. pork. Northey acknowledges that pork trade relations with Japan are stable; but he is working to promote U.S. pork in the country.

“The Japanese consumer in some cases is still surprised that the pork that comes in chilled can be U.S. pork,” said Northey. “Sometime they think the only chilled product out there is domestic pork. So, there are still some opportunities.”

Northey says that one strategy being used is the introduction of new cuts to Japan, such as back ribs, which has been successful in the past. He hopes it will work again.

“The Japanese have a way of cutting some cuts different than what we do. They don’t use the back ribs, the bone in back ribs,” said Northey. “That has taken off and has been a significant demand and probably was at least part of the reason we saw such a big jump in exports of U.S. pork into the Japanese market.”

According to figures from the U.S. Meat Export Federation, Japanese imports of U.S. pork have grown 51 percent in the past ten years while their 2009 imports of U.S. beef are 490 percent below what they were in 2000.