WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. agricultural exports to Japan are expected to slide 11.8 percent to $7.8 billion in fiscal 2004 from the previous year due to the outbreak of mad cow in the United States in December, the Agriculture Department said Thursday.

In November, the department anticipated U.S. agricultural exports to Japan for the year to this September would rise 2.9 percent to $9.1 billion. A month later, Japan banned U.S. beef imports following the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Japan is the world's biggest market for U.S. beef in value terms.

U.S. global agricultural exports are estimated to total $59 billion in fiscal 2004, up 5 percent from a year earlier, but down slightly from the November projection of $59.5 billion.

U.S. global exports of beef and pork in fiscal 2004 are expected to plunge 44 percent from the previous year to $2.9 billion.

But higher prices of corn and wheat, rises in soybean and horticultural exports and the dollar's depreciation will offset a fall in beef and cattle product exports, the department said.

Beef labels examined

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry began checking stores nationwide Friday to ensure that "wagyu" beef products have not been falsely labeled.

The ministry will inspect about 3,000 retailers through the end of March, mainly by checking invoices and asking managers whether cheaper beef has been falsely labeled as wagyu, they said.

The ministry will also buy 300 items of beef labeled as black wagyu, a high-end variety, and conduct DNA tests on them.

Consumer demand for domestic beef has been rising since Japan banned U.S. beef after the discovery of a case of mad cow disease there in December.