Tagging beef eases buyers' BSE worries

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Japan, one of New Zealand's top beef export markets, is adopting tighter traceability rules after its mad cow disease scares.

And in New Zealand electronic tagging is being pushed by at least one Meat New Zealand official as the logical next step to safeguard the export dollar.

Japan, which last year imported 13,500 tonnes of New Zealand beef worth $86 million, is hyper-sensitive to any hint of mad cow disease.

Two years ago, when the first cow with the disease, officially called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was discovered, Japanese consumers boycotted beef.

"Needless to say," said Japan Self Service Association chairman Tokutaro Masui at last week's Asian Retailers Conference, "the beef industry suffered an unprecedented blow.

"Some enterprises were driven into bankruptcy, change of occupation and interruption of business. Some of the most unfortunate even committed suicide."

Seven cows have been found in Japan with BSE since the 2001 scare and the law now requires each locally raised animal to have a 10-digit identification number which will be displayed on the beef labels in supermarkets.

Information on the history of that individual animal can be checked through the identification number.

It is likely to give a major boost to beef sales in a country where 80 per cent of housewives surveyed last year remain uneasy about the safety of beef.

Around 75 per cent of those who participated cited BSE.

The new traceability system, said Masui, "is key to recovering the confidence of the public ... The traceability system that can provide a consumer with accurate information quickly is a symbol of safety".

Neil McLeod, of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, said New Zealand had a "relatively mature" relationship with Japan.

Masui agrees, saying New Zealand's reputation of clean and green is a comfort to Japanese consumers.

New Zealand's traceability systems can track back to a batch of around 200 animals within hours.

Some processing plants are also saving DNA samples from each animal for up to two years.

Meat New Zealand's Dr Neil Clarke said he fully supported any proposal to adopt electronic tagging, which could follow a carcass to the processing plant and track it through the boning room.

"It is an opportunity to revolutionise the way we do our exporting," he said.

Meat New Zealand market development executive Rebecca McGinley said the key to increasing export dollars in Japan was through maximising returns.

Part of this would be convincing consumers that New Zealand-produced grass- fed beef was better than grain-fed beef from Canada and the United States.

Beef exports

The value of New Zealand's beef and veal exports has risen by 55 per cent in the past five years.

1998 $1.17b

1999 $1.09b

2000 $1.4b

2001 $1.68b

2002 $1.82b

Source: Statistics NZ