Singapore bans beef imports from Japan amid mad cow scare

Japan Policy & Politics, Sept 17, 2001

SINGAPORE, Sept. 11 Kyodo

Singapore has suspended imports of Japanese beef, one day after Japan reported its first suspected case of mad cow disease, the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said Tuesday.

''This is in response to the report that Japan may have found its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease in a local dairy cow there,'' it said in a statement.

Singapore imported 4.95 tons of beef valued at S$694,000 ($396,571) from Japan in the first eight months of this year, which accounted for just 0.04% of the city state's total beef imports of 11,140 tons valued at S$54.4 million.

Singapore does not import other kinds of meat from Japan other than beef. An AVA spokesman said the beef imported from Japan is mainly Kobe beef.

The AVA, which is already very strict on meat imports, has been taking an even tougher stance since the outbreak of various diseases in different parts of the globe affecting cattle or poultry in recent years.

In May this year, the AVA ordered supermarkets here to remove from their shelves all food products from Japan containing meat as they had not been certified for import into the city state.

Daimaru supermarket in Singapore, which is frequented by mainly Japanese expatriates, said about 300 items, such as pre-packed curry or frozen meat cutlets, had to be withdrawn from the store and remain unavailable as it is difficult to obtain proper certification for them.

Mad cow disease, first confirmed in Britain in 1986, is thought to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare, fatal brain disorder.

Singapore has already suspended imports of beef from Britain, Belgium, France, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands due to mad cow disease.

It still imports beef from Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and the United States.

In the wake of the Japanese government's announcement of Japan's first suspected case of mad cow disease, Taiwan and South Korea have also announced a ban on beef imports from Japan.