Is Cambodia a 'Japanese beef-laundering' hub?
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:12 am
Cambodia is top of the table for importing the luxury Japanese "wagyu" beef which sells for hundreds of dollars a kilogram. But where can it be going ?
Is it possible that Chinese companies in Cambodia are buying luxury Japanese beef and re-exporting it to China in order to bypass the mainland China ban on importation of Japanese beef which was introduced in 2001 ?
February 18, 2018 4:30 pm JST
Is Cambodia a 'Japanese beef-laundering' hub?
Smugglers bypass Chinese import ban to satisfy hunger for prized meat
PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia's imports of beef from Japan, widely known as "wagyu," have shot up, yet you will struggle to find it on a menu in even the most exclusive restaurants in Phnom Penh.
Many now believe the country has become a staging post on a "beef laundering" route set up to satisfy the palates of affluent Chinese.
"Japanese beef? No way!" said Heang Channy, a butcher at a traditional market in the Cambodian capital. "That can't be true," she laughed on hearing that her country is now the world's largest importer of frozen Japanese beef.
Japanese Finance Ministry statistics show that exports of frozen beef to Cambodia in 2017 surged 50% on the year to 544 tons, making the Southeast Asian country the top importer for seven straight years. But there is little sign of growing, or indeed any, wagyu consumption.
Neither a supermarket run by Japanese retail giant Aeon nor local chains Lucky Supermarket and Thai Huot Market sell Japanese beef.
A handful of high-end Japanese restaurants and Western steakhouses serve it, but at $40-50 for a 100 gram portion, nearly 40 times the price of local beef, it is hard to see the delicacy being a staple in most Cambodian households.
According to Ly Lavil, chairman of the Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association, average annual beef consumption per person is 3kg, and he was surprised to learn about the volume being imported from Japan.
So where does it all go after passing through Cambodian customs?
Some 7.35 million Chinese visited Japan in 2017, up 15% year-on-year, and like all tourists, they like to indulge in a bit of local fare while on vacation. Marbled wagyu has become highly sought after all over the world, a phenomenon fueled by stories of cattle being fed beer and massaged to produce tender cuts.
But in China, where top-quality meat can fetch several hundred dollars per kilogram, importing Japanese beef has been banned since 2001, after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Econom ... dering-hub
Is it possible that Chinese companies in Cambodia are buying luxury Japanese beef and re-exporting it to China in order to bypass the mainland China ban on importation of Japanese beef which was introduced in 2001 ?
February 18, 2018 4:30 pm JST
Is Cambodia a 'Japanese beef-laundering' hub?
Smugglers bypass Chinese import ban to satisfy hunger for prized meat
PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia's imports of beef from Japan, widely known as "wagyu," have shot up, yet you will struggle to find it on a menu in even the most exclusive restaurants in Phnom Penh.
Many now believe the country has become a staging post on a "beef laundering" route set up to satisfy the palates of affluent Chinese.
"Japanese beef? No way!" said Heang Channy, a butcher at a traditional market in the Cambodian capital. "That can't be true," she laughed on hearing that her country is now the world's largest importer of frozen Japanese beef.
Japanese Finance Ministry statistics show that exports of frozen beef to Cambodia in 2017 surged 50% on the year to 544 tons, making the Southeast Asian country the top importer for seven straight years. But there is little sign of growing, or indeed any, wagyu consumption.
Neither a supermarket run by Japanese retail giant Aeon nor local chains Lucky Supermarket and Thai Huot Market sell Japanese beef.
A handful of high-end Japanese restaurants and Western steakhouses serve it, but at $40-50 for a 100 gram portion, nearly 40 times the price of local beef, it is hard to see the delicacy being a staple in most Cambodian households.
According to Ly Lavil, chairman of the Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association, average annual beef consumption per person is 3kg, and he was surprised to learn about the volume being imported from Japan.
So where does it all go after passing through Cambodian customs?
Some 7.35 million Chinese visited Japan in 2017, up 15% year-on-year, and like all tourists, they like to indulge in a bit of local fare while on vacation. Marbled wagyu has become highly sought after all over the world, a phenomenon fueled by stories of cattle being fed beer and massaged to produce tender cuts.
But in China, where top-quality meat can fetch several hundred dollars per kilogram, importing Japanese beef has been banned since 2001, after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Econom ... dering-hub