By EMMA HOPKINS-O’BRIEN

Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The USDA recently announced that the Japanese market is now open to American lamb and goat products for the first time in nearly 15 years.

According to Chase Adams, senior policy and information director for the American Sheep Industry (ASI), the Japanese lamb and goat trade was an unintended casualty of the international bans on U.S. beef following the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in December 2003.

“We know Japan is a market for high-value U.S. lamb and there are not a lot of high-value markets in the world,” Adams said. “So we are very optimistic that reopening Japan will have a positive impact on the prices lamb producers see here at home.”

This news comes long in the making by ASI officials who urged this and the Obama administrations to make lamb a priority. “We have had a number of meetings and correspondence with USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture (Ted) McKinney, asking him to prioritize this issue,” Adams said.

“We are very appreciative of Under Secretary McKinney and the administration’s efforts to make this a priority in conversations with their counterparts in Japan.”

Japan was one of the top-value markets for U.S. lamb prior to the market closure in 2003. Japanese consumers enjoy lamb racks, and ASI said a popular chain of Mongolian eateries have opened in the country, featuring lamb.

Lamb is also served in Japan at “white tablecloth” restaurants. Just last year, Japan’s lamb imports reached a record value of $168 million, supplied by Australia and New Zealand.

Dan Halstrom, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) president and CEO, thanked U.S. agricultural and trade officials for their efforts to restore market access for lamb, when the announcement came on July 12.

“As is the case in other markets where U.S. red meat has been successful in regaining access, this is the result of tremendous work by U.S. government officials and the U.S. meat industry,” he said. “There is great demand for high-quality, grain-fed red meat in Japan, as demonstrated by the success of U.S. beef and pork.

“The U.S. lamb industry is anxious to capitalize on opportunities in Japan’s restaurant and retail sectors, and USMEF is eager to begin promoting U.S. lamb in Japan.”

ASI said Japanese consumers prefer the taste and flavor profile of U.S. lamb and appreciate the land conservation efforts and animal welfare standards of American farmers. USMEF said in a recent news release that lamb is a succulent protein that will stand up well to competitors’ products in the Japanese market, just as it was in Taiwan, which reopened to U.S. lamb in 2016.

Both ASI and USMEF said lamb producers and the industry are extremely excited about the opportunity to again export their quality products to an upscale market.