January 24, 2005

Korean beef prices seen to increase due to spring festival

Prices of livestock and marine products for the spring festival are expected to rise to the previous year's levels, while prices of vegetable and fruit are expected to stabilize, according to the Korea Agricultural Cooperative Marketing, Inc.

Beef rib gift sets, traditional presents for the New Year holidays, have gone up 10 percent to 15 percent from last year. This is because the beef supply has tightened after the Korean government imposed a ban on US imports due to the discovery of a case of mad cow disease there in December 2003.