June 15, 2007

 

US beef reappears on South Korean restaurants

 

 

South Korean restaurants are now starting to prepare menus using US beef for the first time in more than three years as American beef products are going for half the price of South Korean beef.

 

Wholesale prices of the American meat, with fillets going for 34,000 won (US$36.58) per kilogramme (2.2 pounds), are likely to fall further if a large volume of US beef reaches South Korea starting in July or August as expected, industry officials said.

 

The manager at Piatti, a restaurant in Seoul, said on Thursday that some cuts of US meats have been already sold out as customers' response to the meat has been positive.

 

South Korea, once the third-largest market for US beef, has imported some 247 tonnes of US beef since April after Seoul lifted a 3-year-old ban on the meat imposed after a US outbreak of mad cow disease in 2003.

 

Last week, 85 tonnes were sold to restaurants and shops, 96 tonnes are still awaiting government's approval and 66 tonnes were rejected. 

 

An official at Nerf, a major US beef importer said they plan to import 3,000 tonnes of US beef in July that will bring prices down by 30 to 40 percent.

 

The imports will double if South Korea resumes bone-in beef imports, he added.

 

South Korea has some of the highest prices for beef in the world due to its protected market.

 

The country has been expected to be ready by September to resume full imports of US beef with bones as Seoul presently allows imports of boneless US beef from cattle less than 30 months old.

 

Beef with ribs, used in a popular Korean dish, had made up a hefty portion of the 199,000 tonnes of US meat imported into South Korea in 2003.

 

The United States once accounted for more than two-thirds of South Korea's beef imports, or about US$850 million a year of products.