March 9, 2011

South Korea's imports of beef from US surge

South Korea's imports of US beef rose dramatically this year as it was struggling to contain foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), according to the industry data.

The data compiled by the US Meat Export Federation also showed that Korea imported 20,340 tonnes of US beef through February 17 this year, compared with 11,209 tonnes in the first two months of last year.

Korea purchased a total of 101,816 tonnes of US beef in the previous year, up 94% from a year earlier, according to the federation.

The figures showed that American beef, whose imports lost ground in 2008 amid public anger over US beef imports on mad cow disease, continued to regain its popularity.

Market watchers attributed the rising popularity of US beef in Korea to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, which has forced the nation to cull more than three million heads of livestock during the last four months.

The Korean government estimates that FMD has caused more than KRW2 trillion (US$1.79 billion) in damage since the first outbreak was reported in November. After conventional quarantine measures failed, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries began vaccinating livestock on December 25. There are three million heads of cattle and 10 million pigs in the country.