USMEF says Korea success is not down to FMD
16/03/2011
South Korean farmers discovered FMD in November 2010, leading the government to cull around 3.5 million head of livestock. However, USMEF has said that its recovery in the South Korean beef market was already well under way before this. Imports of US beef were banned in South Korea in 2003 after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in the US. At the time, South Korea was the third-largest importer of US beef exports, with an estimated market value of $815 million. In 2010, two years after imports resumed, South Korea regained its place as the third largest overseas market for US beef.
January 2011 beef exports results were released in the US at the start of March. South Korea was once again one of the fast-growing markets. US beef exports to South Korea reached nearly 12,000 tonnes in volume and $49.2 million in value, an increase of more than 60% and 80% respectively compared to January 2010. USMEF’s Korea director, Jihae Yang, has insisted that the upward trend in export activity is due to a sharp increase in consumer demand, and not because of FMD.
At the time of the announcement of the January figures, Ms Yang said: “The Korean FMD cases did not hurt the domestic cattle industry significantly. The government culled less than 5% of the total cattle population, so there is still lots of domestic beef available in the market. US beef was already in recovery here before the FMD crisis. FMD is not the major factor.”
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