April 16, 2012

South Korea's beef cattle down in Q1

As farmers gave up raising cattle due to a prolonged fall in beef prices, South Korea saw a decrease in the number of beef cattle for the first three months this year, government data showed Friday (Apr 13).

The number of Hanwoo and beef cattle came to 2.94 million heads in the first quarter (Q1), down 10,000 heads, or 0.3%, from the previous quarter, but up 2% from a year ago, when mouth-and-foot disease hit the nation.

By contrast, the number of pigs increased 680,000 heads, or 8.3 %, to 8.85 million heads in the same period.

The number of layer chickens rose 3.6% to 63.19 million heads, whereas the number of meat chickens fell 0.8% to 69.38 million heads.