New Japanese Law May Offer Opportunity to U.S. Growers
A new Japanese law went into effect near the end of May that drastically alters the number of tolerances, or limitations, that exist in foods imported by the island nation. Japan is the largest food-importing nation, with annual imports of more than $40 billion in recent years. The biggest suppliers to Japan include the U.S., China, and the Philippines.
The Asian suppliers to Japan are going to be affected to a greater extent than U.S. growers. More than 6,000 Chinese companies will be impacted and some may give up the Japanese market entirely. Profit margins for Chinese commodities were five to ten percent previously, but the new law is expected to increase farm costs by 20 percent, according to a Chinese export executive in Shangdong province, from which $2.3 billion worth of food was exported to Japan last year. The Japanese inspection of the commodities will also add another five percent.
There are more that 50,000 limitation standards in the new law on 302 kinds of food and 799 kinds of pesticides, animal remedies, and feed additives. Previously, there were 9,321 limitation standards on 186 kinds of food and 286 substances. Almost half of the new limitation standards follow standards from the U.S., EU, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Consequently, the law will mostly impact the food and pesticide industries of Asian countries. China is also greatly hindered by the fact that export companies there can only test for about a third of the 450 compounds that will be monitored in Japan from now until the end of March.
Historic data support the contention that China would be impacted. Last year’s testing by Japanese officials revealed 21 instances of imported food violations. If the new law were in place during that time, the number of violations would have been 114. In contrast, U.S. food violations would have only increased from five to seven.
Although the increased costs to Japanese consumers and Chinese growers are potentially negative, there may also be some benefit. A Philippine fruit growing association said they were trying to comply with the law by altering recommendations for pest control. For example, chlorpyrifos was used historically for mango leafhopper, but now growers must be cautious in their pesticide use. (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 6/5/06).
