The UK has agreed a beef and lamb export certificate to Japan, with the announcement made to coincide with the visit of the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to Downing Street last week. It paves the way for exports to resume to Japan, after the country banned UK beef and lamb during the BSE crisis in 1996.

As part of the deal, the UK will join a list of 14 specified countries, which import under the condition that beef supplied must be from cattle under 30 months.

The list also includes Ireland, the US and Canada.

Northern Ireland, currently holding a BSE negligible risk status, might have hoped to be included on Japan’s third free country list for those free from rinderpest, FMD and BSE.

It includes 21 major exporters, like Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.

Factories wanting to do business with Japan have to get approval from JMAFF, the Japanese authority that regulates imports

However, several European countries, including Switzerland, Norway, Italy and Sweden – which all have the BSE negligible risk status – are included by the Japanese authorities on the specified countries list, rather than the free third countries list.

Factories wanting to do business with Japan have to get approval from JMAFF, the Japanese authority that regulates imports.

The process involves an audit of the factory by the Food Standards Agency to establish that it is compliant with the agreed export conditions.

They make a recommendation to JMAFF for approval and trade can commence when JMAFF adds it to its list of designated facilities for export to Japan.

The estimated value of the market over the next five years is put at approximately £75m for beef and £52m for lamb.

Beef carries a huge 38.5% tariff at present, which makes developing business difficult.

The Republic of Ireland has had approval to the Japanese market since 2013. In 2018, to the end of October, it had only sold 649t of mainly offal, worth €2.9m.

However, an EU free trade deal with Japan is due to come into effect next month, which will progressively reduce the beef tariff to 9% over the next 15 years.

The UK will also avail of this for the remainder of its EU membership, and thereafter will revert to full tariff, although both the UK and Japan have stated ambitions of making their own trade agreement after Brexit.

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