Where OH Where did CBEF go?

[wd40]

Japan restaurant chain to re-introduce U.S. beef

The Skylark Co., a Japanese sit-down restaurant chain, said it will add steaks from the United States to its menu in 2007.

Kiwamu Yokokawa, chairman of the company, told Asia Pulse that supplies are inadequate this year, but that the chain plans to add U.S. beef next spring "since we have confirmed its safety."

The restaurants will identify the beef as U.S. grown.

hmm - where are our salesmen?

[PureCountry]

Too busy lunching and drinking with bureau-craps from the USDA. Just a hunch, though.

[wd40]

U.S. beef in short supply in Japan

Apart from shipments to Costco Wholesale Japan, U.S. beef is hard to find in Japanese restaurants and retail stores, according to Japanese press reports.

Restaurateurs interested in adding U.S. beef to their menus can't find adequate supplies, and retailers on the whole say their customers don't want the product. Only 17.6 tons of beef arrived by air in the first 10 days since Japan reopened its market, as U.S. producers scramble to find a source of beef from animals 20 months of age and younger, and Japanese wholesale customers nervously gauge consumer interest.

At about $11.70 a pound on average, U.S. beef costs a fraction of Japanese-raised beef, which often retails for over $50 a kilogram, but Australian beef is nearly matching the price and is shifting production from grass-fed to grain-finished to provide the fattier beef Japanese consumers prefer. Western Australia's largest packer, Harvey Beef, announced this week that it will shift its production to grain-fed beef to cut costs, increase sales and stimulate the production capacity of the nation's feedlots.