Snow Brand Food shares at record low


Snow Brand Food president Shozo Yoshida resigned last week

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Shares in Japanese meat packer Snow Brand Food fell more than 25 percent to a record low of 32 yen Monday as the fallout from a meat labelling scandal continued to shake the company.

The shares, which closed Friday at 43 yen, recovered a little to finish the day at 34 yen, a drop of just under 21 percent.

Shares in parent Snow Brand Milk Products Co Ltd -- which had its own troubles after a food poisoning scandal two years ago -- fell 19 yen or 14.29 percent to 114 yen.

Both shares significantly underperformed the Nikkei 225 average, which finished down 1.63 percent at 9631.93.

Snow Brand Food shares have fallen more than 60 percent since the scandal broke in late January.

The company falsely labelled imported Australian beef as domestic beef to take advantage of assistance measures related to the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan last year.

Opposition political parties launched a no-confidence motion Monday against the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, accusing his agriculture minister of mishandling the disease outbreak.

Police raid offices

Reuters news agency reported Japanese police have raided the offices of Snow Brand Food.

A police spokesman said Saturday that investigators had begun searches of about 30 Snow Brand Food offices and facilitie, including its Tokyo headquarters.

Snow Brand Food admitted last week to false labelling to take advantage of a government scheme intended to help the domestic meat industry deal with the impact of mad cow disease.

Snow Brand Food president Shozo Yoshida resigned last week to take responsibility for the scandal.

Snow Brand Milk, which owns 65 percent of Snow Brand Food, saw its own reputation suffer from a milk-poisoning scandal in June 2000.