Corn, Beef, and Japan  Keith Miller

March 16  '09

Keith Miller is the 7th district representative on the KFB board of directors, and also serves as vice chairman of the United States Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Hello from Tokyo, Japan. At this writing I am here for a promotion with the Kansas corn commission. We are promoting Kansas meat products, especially beef.   You may ask why a corn farmer would go all the way to Japan to promote beef?   Well, Kansas beef is the number one customer of Kansas corn.   Our group sponsored promotions at the grocery outlets around the country.  We have also been meeting with import companies trying to see what they are looking for in food products

Japan is about the same size as California but has half the population of the USA.  The country imports sixty percent of its food.  Think of the market potential that it has and the opportunity that we have to do business with them.  

As I talk to Japanese officials and traders the same thing keeps coming up.   They need more product from the United States.  The everyday housewife from Japan thinks the U.S. has a good and safe product.   The problem is our limited supply.   Japan currently restricts imports of cattle to those only 20 months and younger.   It is very difficult to produce a tender, quality product in that short timeframe.   We need to expand exports to Japan of cattle at least 30 months old and preferably to established OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) standards.   OIE is a scientific standard that most trading countries accept.   If this change was made it would open the Japanese market to ninety percent of the U.S. exportable product.

People ask me about the potential here in Japan.  Today I was in a market where Wagu prime rib (domestic beef) was selling for $250 per lb.   I was shocked when I saw the price.   However, food for the most part here is not overly expensive if you are in the right areas, and the people of Japan have a large variety of products to choose from.  While some products are very expensive, the food is always fresh.   In one store we visited there were 17,000 transactions throughout the day.   I had never seen anything like it.

Because the Japanese as a rule have small places to live, refrigeration is limited, therefore they shop often.  The store manager estimated that our promotional visit will result in a 15-20 percent increase in beef sales to the store.   The problem is the store, just as many Japanese restaurants that provide U.S. beef, consistently run out of U.S. product.  

Somehow we need to get our two governments together to work out our differences.   In these times when there is no abundance of markets,  we need to act and take advantage of this kind of opportunity.   Later this week we will go to Korea to see what we can do there to improve U.S. exports.   I will try to update you on what I see there and how we can improve that market.

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