February 26, 2010

South Korea marks higher consumer trust for local beef

A new survey revealed that consumer confidence in premium Korean beef was significantly higher than in imported meat.

The survey conducted by state-run think tank Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) showed respondents giving high marks to Korean hanwoo beef in areas such as food safety, taste and overall meat quality.

Of the 450 people polled late last year, 72.1% were satisfied with food safety, while that of taste and meat quality registered 90.9% and 84.5%, respectively.

The high level of satisfaction reflects public trust in measures implemented by the government in recent years that have significantly raised market transparency," said Woo Byung-joon, a KREI researcher involved with the research.

South Korea currently provides detailed information such as quality of meat, country of origin, and allows consumers to retrace the entire life of the cattle.

The researcher said compared to Korean beef, consumer satisfaction in the safety of Australian beef stood at 38.2%, with taste and meat quality slightly at better numbers of 46.9% and 41.8%.

Local consumers still believed it is unsafe to consume US beef, and the meat generally received poor ratings for taste and meat quality. The latest survey showed only 3.5% of the respondents were satisfied with US beef safety, with approval for taste and meat quality reaching only 17.6% and 15.3%.

However, consumer satisfaction for local hanwoo beef prices fell short of Australian and US meat, said Woo. Hanwoo beef price satisfaction stood at 15.8%, while Australian and US meat received ratings of 43.3% and 26.3%, respectively, he said.

He added that consumers believed the appropriable price for hanwoo beef should be KRW19,390 (US$16.7) per 600 grams, which is about 86% of actual market price of around KRW23,000 (US$19.84). The numbers reflect prices in September 2009.