The government has recovered some 2.47 billion yen in subsidies paid to meat dealers after the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan in 2001, after determining that 6,300 tons of beef failed to qualify for the subsidies, a livestock industry support body said Saturday.
The total accounts for nearly one-third of the 9.2 billion yen budget the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry earmarked for the project, according to a survey of the Agriculture & Livestock Industries Corp., an affiliate of the ministry.
Under the project, which was introduced in October 2001 after the discovery of Japan's first mad cow case one month earlier, the ministry ordered agricultural cooperatives and industry bodies across Japan to buy up frozen beef from meat dealers and keep it in storehouses to alleviate public concern by preventing unchecked beef from being put on the market.
The ministry paid the costs of keeping the meat frozen as well as compensation to make up for the drop in the value of the meat due to its deteriorating quality in storage.
The project targeted beef from cows slaughtered after the discovery of the first case and before Japan began to check all slaughtered cows for bovine spongiform encephalopathy on Oct. 18, 2001.
But last year, the Board of Audit found that some samples from the beef in storage indicated the meat had been frozen before the BSE outbreak.
The corporation's survey followed instructions from the board to recheck the disqualified beef stock and calculate the amount of subsidies that should be refunded.