March 30, 2012

Korean pig farmers complain on tariff-free pork import measure

In front of the National Assembly, Korean local pig farmers are protesting against a government measure to import 70,000 tonnes of pork belly into Korea tariff-free.

According to Arirang News, the Korea Swine Association in response says, it will stop shipping pork for an indefinite period of time starting Monday, unless the government reverses its decision.

The association says that pig farmers have already been struggling to make ends meet, due to spiking livestock feed and oil prices.

"The pork price keeps going down, and the cost of production keeps increasing. Against this backdrop, when the 70-tonnes of tariff-free pork comes into the Korean market, local pig farmers will face tremendous difficulties, just to remain in business," said Peter Choi, Policy Coordinator of the Korea Swine Association in an interview.

In addition, with the Korea-US free trade agreement coming into effect, the tariff rate for frozen pork belly has been lowered from 25% to 16%, something that will lead to even more imports into the Korean market.

Despite the protests, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says it has no choice but to stick with its plan in order to prevent pork prices from skyrocketing.

They add that the number of pigs in the country has not yet recovered to levels seen prior to last year's outbreak of foot and mouth disease, which resulted in the culling of millions of pigs.

Analysts say they expect pork prices to shoot up, if the government and swine farmers fail to reach an agreement by the end of this weekend.