Agricultural News
Damage to Japan's Ag Sector not Affecting U.S. Beef Imports
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:32:16 CDT
More is becoming known about the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan. According to the latest report of damage to the nation's agricultural sector - more than 59-thousand acres in the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were flooded and may be polluted with high levels of salt. The total farmland losses across 16 prefectures is valued at just under 3.4-billion dollars - with the loss of facility and equipment valued at around 2.5-billion. As of April 11 - the estimate for losses of livestock facilities, crops and animals is at 84-million.
Despite the devastation of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami - beef purchasers have booked and received shipments of U.S. beef in quantities that haven't been seen since our first case of BSE at the end of 2003. According to U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Phil Seng - current U.S. beef purchases by the Japanese are 93-percent ahead of 2010. While that pace is not expected to continue - Seng says U.S. beef sales to Japan for the calendar year could easily be 25-percent greater than the year 2010.
The increase isn't quite as impressive - but U.S. corn sales to Japan year-to-date are also up from the same time last year. As of April 7th - Japan's purchases of U.S. corn totaled 10.6-million metric tons - or 418.8-million bushels - an increase of 1.5-percent.
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