November 15, 2001
		Beef exports down in U.S. due to mad cow disease in Japan The discovery of mad cow disease in Japan, the top importer of U.S. beef, has affected beef consumption there to such a degree that it may take years for U.S. beef exports to fully recover, said the U.S. Meat Export Federation vice president for Asia. "It could take two to three years until it totally comes back," said Joel Haggard. "That would be accelerated dramatically with the implementation of a sustained campaign directed at consumers to reassure them about U.S. and imported beef." The Meat Export Federation said that U.S. sales to Japan, which totaled $1.8 billion last year, could be cut in half following the confirmation of a case of the brain-wasting disease on a dairy farm near Tokyo in July. In related news, McDonald's Japan slashed its profit estimate by about 26 percent for this year. " To our regret, it seems that there is still no end to consumers' worries about beef and mad cow disease, which prompted us to lower our earnings estimates," Yasuyuki Yagi, vice president of the company, told reporters. "We've been operating for 30 years, and this is our biggest crisis ever in our history."