November 5, 2009

South Korea now holds half of local beef market share

South Korea's sales of domestic beef in the country have increased sharply this year, with its market share reaching 50 percent in September, according to the agriculture ministry on Wednesday (Nov 4).

The market share of local hanwoo beef fell to as low as 36.3 percent in 2003 after South Korea fully opened its market to imported beef in 2001, as South Koreans generally prefer cheaper imported beef to the domestic product, said the ministry.

But demand for locally grown beef has increased steadily this year, even though local meat usually costs two to three times more than beef imported from the US and Australia.

A total of 144,100 tonnes of local beef was sold in the first nine months of this year, slightly lower than the 144,200 tonnes of imported beef sold during the same period.

A total of 2.7 million head of hanwoo cattle were raised in South Korea in September, compared with 1.3 million in 2002, said the ministry.