Japanese officials began inspecting a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley on Monday as part of a tour of U.S. facilities ahead of their nation’s plan to lift a ban on U.S. beef.
Representatives of Japan’s health and agricultural ministries arrived at the plant before 8 a.m. and were to spend the day, Swift spokesman Sean McHugh said.
Members of Japanese media organizations gathered outside the Swift plant, but neither Japanese nor company officials were expected to make public comments, McHugh said. The tour was closed to the media.
Japan agreed last month to lift its ban – first imposed in 2003 because of fears over mad cow disease – after inspecting 35 U.S. meatpacking facilities to ensure they comply with Japanese food-safety guidelines.
Lifting the ban would reopen Japan’s market, which was worth $1.4 billion in 2003 sales to U.S. ranchers.
“We’re hopeful that everything works out,” said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “We feel like we’ve given them enough assurance.”
Schuele said the association has not heard how the inspections have proceeded since the teams arrived last month other than a U.S. Agriculture Department report that they appeared to be going well.
The visit comes at a time when there is strong growth in demand for beef as well as a 7 percent increase in the domestic beef supply, which could be offset by the reopening of the Japanese market, Schuele said.
Swift has said the teams also will inspect its three other beef-processing plants, in Hyrum, Utah; Cactus, Texas; and Grand Island, Neb., but no time frame was available.
Greeley-based Swift is one of the nation’s largest meatpackers. It operates 10 beef, pork and lamb plants in the U.S. and has facilities in Australia.
Mad cow disease is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. In humans, eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and deadly nerve affliction.
