Japanese To Inspect Tyson Foods Beef Plants
Last updated Friday, May 11, 2007 10:22 PM CDT in Business
By The Morning News
Tyson Foods Inc. confirmed Friday that Japanese beef inspectors will be visiting all eight of the company's beef processing plants beginning May 21 -- including the facility recently snubbed by Tokyo.
In February, Japan stopped beef imports from Tyson Foods' Lexington, Neb., packing plant after finding two boxes of beef that did not contain the proper age verification of 20 months old or younger, as required by Japan.
The Lexington plant that remains under voluntary suspension will also be inspected, said Tyson Foods spokesman Archie Schaffer III.
The upcoming visits are part of a two-week tour of U.S. meat packing plants by the Japanese as part of a compromise between the two governments in compliance with a bilateral trade agreement.
If no safety problems are found during the inspections, the parties are expected to launch negotiations on whether to ease the 20-month age restriction. The age restriction was instituted in July when Japan lifted the two-year blanket on beef imports from the United States.
In related export news, Tyson Foods said Friday the company made its first beef shipments to South Korea since the market opened in September.
The company said two small shipments were sent by air-freight to get the ball moving after more than eight months of watching from the sidelines. Schaffer said the company would begin filling larger orders for container shipment next week.
Restoring the beef trade to its pre-BSE (mad cow) levels has been an industrywide challenge. Tyson Foods recently reported its beef export sales were still only 32 percent of the pre-BSE highs recorded in 2003.
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