TOKYO, July 16 ― Japan has raised a nationwide alert on livestock infectious diseases, as a growing number of overseas tourists in the summer holidays may have dire consequences on the country’s farm industry. In recent years, cases of livestock infectious diseases, such as food-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, have been recorded across the globe. Foot-and-mouth disease virus causes a highly contagious acute vesicular disease that affects cloven-hoofed livestock including cattle, camels, goats, sheep and pigs. It can cause high fever as well as blisters inside the mouth and on the feet and spread very quickly if it is uncontrolled. Meanwhile, African swine fever occurs among pigs and wild … Continue reading →

TOKYO, July 15 ― Japan’s falling dairy herd has bottomed out for the first time in 16 years, official data has showed. The number of dairy cows as of February 1, 2018 was 1.32 million head, up 0.4% from a year earlier, according to the agriculture ministry. That was mainly because the number of female heifers has picked up in Hokkaido prefecture, the country’s major dairy supplier.

TOKYO, July 14 ― Cheese consumption in Japan has been growing, as people prefer eating at home than dining out to save some extra cash, official data has showed. But Japanese farmers have failed to meet that demand as the domestic cheese production has been declining. So, floods of imports are taking advantage of filling the gap. The trend comes at a time when the free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU will come into force early next year. The EU is well known for specialty cheeses and one of the world’s major exporters of the dairy products. Japanese consumption for cheese increased 5.3% to 338,344 metric tons in 2017 … Continue reading →