Better access sought to Japanese beef market

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 15

Better access sought to Japanese beef market

By

ROBERT LOWE

NZPA Sydney Getting better access for New Zealand beef to the Japanese market would be a difficult assignment, but the rewards for doing so would be great, the deputy chairman of the New Zealand Meat Board, Mr Norman Mcßae, has said. Mr Mcßae was one of the signatories to a communique issued at the end of the Four Nations’ Beef Conference attended also by Australia, the United States and Canada at Surfers Paradise. The communique said the four nations’ cattle industries were opposed to any further protectionist measures restricting the international beef trade, and each nation agreed to ask its Government to apply increased pressure on Japan to free that

access arrangements. New Zealand’s negotiations on new access arrangements for beef to Japan are due to begin later this year. Mr Mcßae said the New Zealand beef industry wanted the high beef prices in Japan to be brought down and related more to the value of the product.

The conference was told that Japan inhibited demand for imported beef through pricing and administrative arrangements, and it also required part of the proceeds from imports be used to subsidise domestic producers. “Japan has got to change its agricultural policies,” Mr Mcßae said. "There is pressure not only from New Zealand, but also Australia and North America to free up the agricultural trade barrier and beef is only one

element of that. “It will be a long, hard battle, but we have to keep working on it because Japan is an affluent market and the demand for beef is there.” The communique also said the four cattle nations would co-ordinate an international drive to promote beef consumption.

Mr Mcßae said a lot of doubtful information had been spread about beef. “Most people, if you asked them a few months ago, would have said that red meat was not healthy and that if you ate beef you stood a high risk of suffering from coronary disease,” he said. “The evidence has indicated that this is not so.

“Quality beef has a lot of minerals and it has elements that ‘are not available in a meatless dies. We have to get this message across.