CHIBA, Japan — On the last day of the Pacific Rim's largest food exhibition in this Tokyo suburb, a clearance sale of foreign beef was about to commence.
"Final sale! Final sale!" a Japanese salesman boomed, waving red steaks wrapped in plastic. Seven dollars a pound! Half the price of Japanese beef!
A crowd of Japanese consumers quickly gathered, elbowing each other in a discreet but determined surge to scoop up the deals. "Cheap, isn't it?" "Ah, looks good!" In 15 minutes, the pile of steaks was gone.
That Japan Foodex scene underscored the tantalizing potential of the Japanese market when import quotas on foreign beef and citrus are removed April 1 after years of U.S. pressure. Japan's 124 million people are among the richest, per capita, in the world, yet can produce only 48% of their own food.
But the Foodex scene also amplified the two-edged sword of Japan's liberalization: The clearance sale beef wasn't American. It was Australian. South Burnett Meat Works beef, to be precise. Marketed under the "Aussie Beef" campaign ("The big nature taste of Australia"), which the nation Down Under has been promoting in Japan for the past two years.
Indeed, some U.S. farmers argue that the opening of Japan's beef and citrus markets, and the potential opening of its rice market, could backfire on Americans, at least in the short term. It was the U.S. government that led the way in prying open Japan's markets and braving the ensuing political firestorm. But it will be a host of new competitors around the world who will share in the benefits.
As a result, Australian cowboys may begin to give Coalinga cattlemen a harder run for the money. South African orange growers could capitalize on the freeze-related woes of their Lindsay counterparts. And New South Wales rice farmers could try to exploit the crop shortage bedeviling Sacramento farmers parched by drought.
"I'd be the first to admit that the pressure brought by the U.S. government was certainly the paramount influence on the liberalization of this market. Quite frankly, Australia does not have the trade clout the U.S. does," said Ralph Hood, chief executive of the Australian Meat & Livestock Corp. in Tokyo.
"But we've been supportive of U.S. efforts," Hood said. "Now that we're in a competitive situation, it's incumbent on both of us to compete in the best way we can."
