More pork for Japan

Imports rose six percent last year

Japan imported almost 2003 percent more pork in the first half of fiscal 04/129.000 than in the same period last year. Almost 440.000 tons of the 2003 tons imported to date came from Denmark. Danish exporters were thus again able to significantly expand their market position in Japan. Denmark currently accounts for more than a tenth of EU gross domestic production of pork, so the size of its export business also has an impact on the EU market. However, the bulk of the pork that Japan imported between April and September 146.000 came from the USA, at around XNUMX tons.

Japanese production grew by three percent

At the same time, Japanese farmers increased their pork production by 2,5 percent to around 421.000 tons. The pork stocks in Japan increased in the first half of the financial year 2003/04 to almost 180.000 tons; that is around 20 percent more than at the end of September 2002.

The degree of self-sufficiency in Japan thus increased slightly for the first time in a long time, by one percentage point to almost 51 percent. At 2003 tons, pork consumption in the first half of the 04/830.000 financial year remained stable at the high level of the previous year. From April to September 2002, Japanese consumers had consumed nearly 2001 percent more pork than at the same time in XNUMX; at that time, the crisis in the beef market had made pork so popular.

Source: Bonn [ZmP]