January 24, 2024

Year-on-year drop in South Korea's beef cattle number in Q4 2023

The number of beef cattle in South Korea fell year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, data showed on January 19, amid the country's falling meat prices in the market.

Domestic farms raised 3.62 million beef cattle, including the premium 'hanwoo' over the period, down 2.9% from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The number of milk cows also fell 0.8% to 387,000 over the same period, the data showed.

The agency added that the number of egg-laying chickens moved up 4.1% to 3.01 million following higher egg prices. The number of broiler chickens gained 6.1% to 5.4 million.

Farms also raised 11.08 million pigs in the fourth quarter, down 0.3% year-on-year. The number of ducks moved up 9.1% to 544,000.

- Yonhap