By Alex Frew McMillan CNN Hong Kong
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Prices for pork and chicken have risen close to 40 percent in Japan since the discovery of the first cases of mad-cow disease there.
Beef prices have also dropped almost 30 percent and are down 40 percent from last year. They were already suffering from the economic downturn, before a public-health scare put the Japanese public off their beef-in-a-bowl.
Japan discovered Asia's first case of mad-cow disease in September. Since then, Japanese consumers have gone off steak, beef-and-rice and pretty much any other cow product.
Officials reported the fourth case of mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, this week. Agriculture Minister Tsutomu Takebe has warned Japan to brace for more cases.
The discovery of afflicted cows, which can cause the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease variant in humans, is a crushing blow for Japan's beef industry.
The price of chicken thigh has jumped 36 percent since confirmation of mad cow, hitting 736 yen ($5.84) per kilogram in Tokyo markets this week, according to the Nikkei business daily.
Pork prices are up a similar amount.
Beef spending off by half heading into key season
But beef spending dropped by half in October, and the highest Grade A steak was selling at 1257 yen per kilogram, a 30 percent drop.
Wholesale beef prices have sunk to their lowest level in over a decade.
The crunch is coming at the worst possible time. Japanese beef sales typically peak in December, when beef is sometimes given as gifts and eating out is at a high.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that American pork exports to Japan were up 20 percent by value, and 26 percent by volume, in the first 10 months of the year.
The USDA explained that mad cow has been the main driver, even though the statistics only show two months of the effect.
Japanese officials have also been roundly criticized for their siege mentality in confronting the mad-cow problem.
The European Union published a report in February that suggested Japanese cows were at risk. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has been blamed for around 100 deaths in Europe.
But the report was not released in Japan, where authorities have come under fire for suppressing it. They also opened themselves to ridicule with claims - later retracted - that the first "mad" cow was destroyed and that feed containing beef parts was not available in Japan.
Though the agriculture department is upping its scrutiny of Japan's beef industry, it says it will keep the results sealed, for fear of creating a public panic.
Beef suppliers pride themselves on very high standards in Japan. As in Europe, high-grade beef is occasionally eaten raw, but typically served in strips with soy sauce.
Though raw fish served as sashimi is much more popular, "wagyu sashimi" (raw beef) became popular at the height of Japan's bubble economy, as a sign of extremely high quality meat.
