September 23, 2008

South Korea will look to decrease the number of cattle on concerns of an oversupply in domestic beef.

The Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Chang Tae-pyong, said the number of hanwoo cattle currently exceeds 2.5 million, over the proper level of 2.2 million.

An oversupply could cause domestic beef prices to plunge and loss of market share, and the issue would worsen if the volume of US beef imports increases, Chang said.

According to Chang, the government will seek cooperation from farmers on the issue at an appropriate time. While the government will not take any extreme measures to reduce the number of cattle, it will consider slaughtering cows before bulls.

The ministry will also improve distribution infrastructure to increase the ratio of direct trading between farmers and consumers from the current 20 percent to 50 percent.

Meanwhile, South Korea imported 68 tonnes of refrigerated US beef last month. Although the amount is smaller than the 107 tonnes of refrigerated beef imported from New Zealand in the same period, the US is expected to exceed them and compete with Australia to become the largest beef exporter to South Korea.

About 2,900 tonnes of frozen US beef was cleared in August, just behind Australia in terms of import volume but ahead of New Zealand and Mexico.