020712 Australia Fighting Counterfeit Beef Export ScamJuly 8, 2002Canberra, Australia - The government vowed to stop counterfeiters who have been selling hundreds of tons of beef to Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries that have been falsely certified as premium Australian meat. Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said quarantine officials knew of 233 metric tons (256 short tons) of inferior quality beef sold in overseas markets in the past 18 months which have been falsely labeled Australian beef with forged documents. He added the counterfeiters were probably separate groups operating independently. He said the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, or AQIS, was investigating the problem and was trying to develop documents which were harder to forge. In major markets such as the United States, Canada and New Zealand, certification would soon be done by government-to-government electronic transfer that would make forgery impossible. Electronic transfer was already in use with Japan, Australia's second largest export market after the United States, Truss added. Australia is the world's largest beef exporter, shipping 946,000 metric tons (1.04 million tons) worth 6.5 billion Australian dollars (dlrs 3.7 billion) in 2001. As an island continent, it also enjoys a disease-free reputation, which makes its beef exports highly prized. Officials would not disclose which countries in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia were victims of the scam. One official noted on condition of anonymity that Australia only exported about 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) a year to Southeast Asia and even less to Eastern Europe.
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