Roundup Time for Teriyaki Beef

Move over, Ben Cartwright. Some rich new cattle barons have come to town. In the past year Japanese investors have developed an appetite for U.S. beef- producing properties, including ranches, feedlots and packinghouses. Zenchiku, a major Tokyo-based meat importer, bought the 80,000-acre Selkirk Ranch near Dillon, Mont., last October for $13 million. A company called Mt. Shasta Beef, formed by Japanese entrepreneur Masa Tanabe and three California cattlemen, spent $2.2 million in January to lay claim to a 6,000-acre ranch in Northern California’s Siskiyou County.

What spurred the investments was Tokyo’s agreement last June to lift trade restrictions that limited imports of U.S. beef to 14% of Japan’s market, which last year totaled 676,000 tons. Since Japanese meat companies expect to import much more U.S.-grown beef, they realize that if they own some of the American cattle operations, they will have a larger stake in the profits.

As the trade restraints begin to fall this month, beef sales in Japan are likely to boom. Cuts like filet mignon, which sells for up to $43 per lb. in Tokyo, should become much more affordable. Thanks in part to spacious grazing land and plentiful feed, American-grown beef is much less expensive to produce than the Japanese variety. “In three to five years, we expect to be selling three times our current monthly volume of 1,200 head of cattle,” says Kazuhiro Ogasawara, vice president of Mt. Shasta Beef.

Some ranchers are uneasy about their new neighbors. Says one cattleman: “They seem to be interested in buying the best spreads and the bigger processors.” But ranchers generally welcome the Japanese beef boom because the export sales will help revive a depressed industry. Per capita beef consumption in the U.S. has fallen from 94.2 lbs. in 1976 to 72.7 lbs. last year. The Japanese investment should also be a boon for Americans who sell supplies and expertise to the new beef barons. Says John Morse, president of Selkirk Ranch: “The Japanese are willing to pay a premium for people who will raise beef the way they want to produce it.”

Japanese investors are buying cattle operations in Australia as well. While Japanese consumers generally consider American grain-fed beef to be the tastiest import, production is less costly Down Under because Australian cattle are fed more grass. Japanese trading houses have poured $132 million into Australian beef operations, more than twice their U.S. investment so far. That trend has prompted mixed feelings. Last month Australian beef producers called for government restrictions on further Japanese investment, but labor unions, whose members have benefited from increased employment, rose to defend it.

In general, the Japanese cattle barons have tried to avoid stirring hard feelings about their new investments. In the U.S. they have formed joint ventures that include American investors. And in Australia companies like Mitsubishi have pledged millions of dollars to upgrade meat-processing plants, which will provide more jobs. The new cowboys want to be seen as pardners, not rustlers.