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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