The US Meat Export Federation has forecasted that the US beef exports to Japan will rise 35% in the current year due to increasing demand and stronger yen.

Philip Seng, President and Chief Executive Officer of the US Meat Export Federation, said that US beef export to Japan would increase 35% in 2009 as stronger yen is leading to price-reductions and surging demand, as reported by bloomberg.

According to the Federation, exports of meat, including the meat from internal organs, is expected to go up to nearly 100,000 Metric Tonnes in 2009 against 74,000 Tonnes in 2008, with yen registering an increase of 23% against dollar in 2008. The US beef exports, including internal organs, (known as variety meat) to Japan increased 59% in 2008 over 2007. Increase in shipments by value surged 57% to reach $383 Million. This year till February 19, 2009, total meat exported by the US reached 57,600 Tonnes (127 Million Pounds), a YOY increase of 3.9%.

The growth in meat exports throughout 2008 is primarily attributed to weak US dollar and soaring demand for meat products worldwide. Interestingly, the US dollar became stronger against almost every currency, except the Japanese currency. Moreover, the economies of several trading partners have slow downed, resulting in weak demand for grain-fed beef in those markets.

Moreover, Japanese consumers’ purchasing habits are increasingly shifting towards relatively inexpensive varieties of meat, and this may be an excellent opportunity for the US beef exporters, provided they overcome the adverse exchange rate. Despite this, beef exporters will have to face a partial consumer shift to other sources of proteins as well.

Since past one year, the US beef exports have been increasing as it has regained trust in the leading global markets. There are immense growth opportunities for the US beef exporters in the international marketplace. In addition, beef check-off, generally leveraged with funding from the sources like foreign market development programs of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), is also boosting the confidence of global consumers in the American beef.

According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “American beef industry is poised to take advantage of the shifting consumer preference in Japan. Also, the US beef have traditionally been on high-demand in the Japanese market and will continue to maintain this trend as its corn-fed beef is regarded to be of high-quality. Further, strong yen is increasing the price-competition among the US beef as well beef imported from other countries.”

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