April 1, 2011

US beef, pork's 2011 market shares increase in South Korea

The 2011 market shares of US beef and pork have continuously increased in South Korea due to a series of FMD outbreaks, a report showed Thursday (Mar 31).

The local market share of US beef reached 38.6% in the first two months of this year, with imports reaching 17,828 tonnes, according to the report by the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

The figure represents a gain of 6.1 percentage points from that of last year. The market share of US beef was 26.5% in 2009, compared with 15.2% in 2008 and 6.4% in 2007.

"Up till February, beef imports from all foreign countries increased by 7,154 tonnes compared to the previous year with US beef accounting for more than half at 4,801 tonnes,"the federation said.

The rise in imports can be attributed to South Korea's culling of 3.47 million heads of pigs, cattle, deer and goats since late November to counter the spread of FMD.

In contrast, Australian meat that dominated the import beef market after Seoul temporarily banned US beef  in late 2003, saw its market share tumble from 73.3% in 2007 to 53% in 2010 and 47% in the first two months of this year.

In addition, the market share of US pork hit 34.2% in the January-February period, up 6.3 percentage points from the year before. During the two-month period, US pork imports reached 21,035 tonnes, the federation said.