The Irish rugby team had the perfect start to the 2019 Rugby World Cup with a commanding 27-3 win over Scotland. However, Irish farmers will be even more interested in Irish beef, dairy, sheepmeat and pigmeat exports winning a greater share of the lucrative Japanese market.

With a population of 127m people, Japan is the world’s third largest economy. Traditionally, Japan has been a hugely protected market for agricultural produce, but the EU and Japan agreed a new free trade deal, which came into effect from February this year.

The EU-Japan Economic Partnership offers some major opportunities for Europe’s agri-food industry. The deal will see tariffs on beef imports from EU member states fall from 38.5% to 9% over 15 years, a removal of most tariffs on pigmeat, while tariffs on dairy imports will fall to zero over 15 years, having been set at 29% up to now. Butter will have a tariff quota of 15,000t after six years.

Beef

Japan is huge importer of beef. This year, the country will import around 600,000t of beef, with half of this supplied by Australia. The USA is also a major exporter of beef to Japan, supplying approximately 250,000t of beef.

Trailing far behind are the two smaller suppliers of beef to Japan – Canada, who will deliver around 15,000t and New Zealand around 12,000t of beef.

Up to 2013, Irish beef was restricted access to the Japanese market due to the 1996 BSE ban. Last year, Irish beef exports to Japan were sitting at 842t, consisting of mainly frozen offal. The estimated value of these exports was €3.6m.

The importance of creating respectful business relationships, combined with the slow reduction of tariff rates means it will take considerable time for Irish beef exporters to build a significant market share in Japan.

Sheepmeat

Since July 2019, Ireland has regained access to the Japanese market for sheepmeat exports. Similar to beef, it will take considerable time to build an export presence for Irish sheepmeat in Japan.

Pork

In contrast to beef and sheepmeat, Ireland has an established customer base in Japan for Irish pork exports, which have grown rapidly in recent years, rising from just over €10m in 2016 to about €41m last year.

Dairy

Japan has a major import requirement for dairy. Domestic production, which has been in decline for several years, is at best expected to stabilise around 7.3bnl.

Domestic supply is targeted primarily towards the liquid milk sector, which means that other dairy products are increasingly imported. By 2021, Japanese dairy imports are forecast to grow to almost 710,000t.

Of this, Japan imported 225,000t of cheese and almost 81,000t of butter. The main suppliers of dairy produce to Japan are New Zealand, Australia and the US, but European exporters are rapidly gaining market share.

Last year, Irish dairy exports to Japan grew by almost 50% to reach €40m. The vast majority of dairy exported to Japan is cheddar cheese. Japan is now the fourth largest market for Irish cheddar exports, importing over €27m worth in 2018, a 49% increase on its 2017 imports.

For many Irish cheddar producers, the Japanese market will be crucial to reducing reliance on the UK market for cheddar exports post-Brexit.