The farm ministry is rethinking its plan to freeze and later resell all beef not certified safe in testing for mad cow disease that began Oct. 18. To allay consumer fears, the ministry said Friday the beef may now be destroyed.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry initially intended to have agricultural organizations freeze and keep the roughly 13,000 tons of beef they had bought from producers for a maximum of eight months before putting it back on the market.
The ministry planned to offer 9.2 billion yen in subsidies to cover the costs of maintaining the frozen beef.
But some ruling Liberal Democratic Party members strongly oppose the move, saying consumer fears about mad cow disease would not be dispelled if the beef were resold.
The ministry is currently in discussions with the LDP on ways to dispose of the beef, the officials said. Experts said that buying the 13,000 tons of beef and incinerating it would cost more than 11 billion yen.
Also Friday, the farm ministry decided to buy and store inspected beef in a bid to prop up slumping prices.
The ministry will buy beef inventories from the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations and five other farm organizations and keep the beef until wholesale prices recover, ministry officials said.
It is the first time for the ministry to make such a move for beef, although the ministry has bought pork in the past when pork prices fell because of oversupply, the officials said.
Beef prices temporarily picked up following the Oct. 18 start of the screening of all cows for human consumption. However, since Tuesday, the price of 1 kg of benchmark beef has fallen from the target price of 780 yen, the officials said.