Japan’s poultry market could benefit from high beef and pork prices

09-Sep-2014 - Last updated on 10-Sep-2014 at 09:41 GMT

Japan began importing raw poultry from Thailand earlier this year for the first time in 10 years

Related tags Meat Poultry

With high market prices expected for beef and pork during the remainder of the year, Japan’s low-priced broiler meat could be at a competitive advantage, according to the latest Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service on the country’s poultry and products sector.

The country implemented a consumption tax increase, from 5% to 8%, in April this year, which has curbed consumption growth for beef and pork and, to a lesser extent, poultry. However, foodservice and processing demand is expected to remain solid throughout this year, according to the report.

Annual poultry consumption for Japan in 2014 is estimated to remain near the record level seen last year of 2.21 million metric tons (MT).

Aside from the price of other proteins, other issues affecting the Japanese poultry market are the decrease in imports from China following the scandal at OSI China’s Husi Food operation in Shanghai.

Thailand also began shipping raw products to Japan in February this year, for the first time in 10 years following the lifting of an highly pathogenic avian influenza-related ban in December last year, and looks set to compete for business with Brazil in the coming years, according to the report.

However, following its widespread ban on imports earlier this summer, Russia will now have an increasing reliance on Brazilian poultry suppliers, "and possibly Thai suppliers", which could have significant effects on raw broiler meat prices in Japan in 2014 and 2015, it said.

The report added that sources had indicated there was limited additional production capacity in Thailand, so export opportunities could be created from other countries to meet the supply needs from Japan.

The country has also increased its imports of raw broiler cuts from the United States – up 27% to 13,002MT, in the first half of the year. Imports from Brazil stood at 192,173MT, and from Thailand, 9,967MT.

Its own domestic broiler production levels are predicted to increase slightly to 1.36m MT.