Shipments of beef cattle from Miyagi are resumed

SENDAI — Farms resumed Tuesday shipping beef cattle raised in Miyagi Prefecture after the central government lifted a ban late last week.

Off to market: A farmer leads a cow from a barn in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, on Tuesday. KYODO

Miyagi beef had previously tested positive for high levels of radioactive substances following the triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Beef processed from cattle shipped from Miyagi Prefecture will be auctioned off Friday morning and sold to consumers and dealers if its safety is confirmed by private-sector laboratories, which will check for radioactive contamination.

The Miyagi government said 636 cattle farms in the prefecture that didn't use tainted rice straw as feed were the first to get the green light to ship their cows.

Farms will be allowed to ship one cow per day for the time being. The prefecture said about 100 cows a day will be sent to meat centers in the cities of Sendai and Tome.

The laboratories will check 1 kg of beef per cow for contamination. The beef can be marketed if the amount of radioactive cesium detected is 50 becquerels or lower per kilogram.

On July 28, the central government instructed Miyagi to halt cattle shipments but lifted the ban Friday.

The government instructed the Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate and Tochigi prefectural governments between July and early August to ban cattle shipments. Miyagi was the first to be allowed to resume shipments.

The central government decided Friday to keep in place Fukushima's ban after beef contaminated with excessive levels of radioactive cesium was newly detected.

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Cattle outfit is year's No. 1 failure

Agura Bokujo, operator of a cattle outfit in Tochigi Prefecture, became Japan's biggest corporate failure this year after consumer fears over beef contaminated with radiation damaged sales, Tokyo Shoko Research said.

The closely held company had ¥433.1 billion in liabilities, Tokyo Shoko said Monday, citing Agura's application Aug. 9 for bankruptcy protection.

In its earnings report for the year that ended in March, Agura had liabilities of ¥62 billion, said Kazufumi Masuda, a spokesman for Tokyo Shoko, which tracks corporate bankruptcy data.

Radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has entered the food chain in recent months, contaminating products from beef to milk and fish. Cattle with unsafe levels of radiation have been found in four prefectures after they were fed hay contaminated with as much as 690,000 becquerels per kilogram, compared with a government safety standard of 300 becquerels.

The discovery rattled consumer confidence after the government, which had assured shoppers that food sold in the market was safe, confirmed radiation-contaminated beef had been sold in stores. Companies affected included Aeon Co., the top supermarket chain.

Sales at Agura Bokujo were damaged by the discovery, Tokyo Shoko said, and followed on the heels of a drop in demand since the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture last year.

Food containing radioactive cesium or iodine that exceeded official standards has been found as far as 360 km from the Fukushima plant.

The government is still trying to put together a centralized system to check for radiation contamination of food, leaving local authorities and farmers conducting voluntary tests.

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