By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

With American beef gradually entering the Korean market, sales of indigenous beef, hanwoo, are falling as pork and chicken sales are starting to increase.

Hanwoo sales this month slid 14 percent as of Sunday in E-Mart from a year earlier. The year-on-year drop by month has been growing recently ― a 6 percent fall in May and 11 percent in June ― according to the country's biggest discount store.

Korean-breed beef is struggling in other discount stores, with sales falling by 9.9 percent from 2007 this month in Homeplus, while Australian beef sales increased 8 percent.

Some retailers showed diverse sales of hanwoo ― GS Mart said sales of its premium brands month were up 46.1 this month percent from last year, while non-premium slumped by 10.6 percent.

Prices of hanwoo also fell in reflection of the tendency. Currently a 100-gram grade-1 fillet sells for 6,250 won ($6.2), down 300 won from March, and tenderloin of the same grade goes for 6,150 won, also 300 won lower.

Pork sales are gaining momentum in contrast to hanwoo. Its year-on-year sales have jumped 46 percent this month, as of Sunday, in E-Mart and 16.6 percent in Homeplus.
Sales of chicken are also growing after having suffered a serious struggle due to bird flu.

In E-Mart, sales grew 17 percent from last year, the first time in four months. They fell by 44 percent in April then plummeted by 68 percent in May, before displaying some growth, but were still down 21 percent last month.

An early nationwide heat wave country and the traditional seasonal dish of chicken soup also seem to have contributed to growing sales.

``There is still distrust on beef among consumers, while chicken sales have almost completely recovered from the slump during the bird flu days,'' E-Mart said. ``A lot of customers seem to be substituting pork and chicken for beef.''

Elsewhere, more butchers seem to be set to deal with U.S. beef.

About 2,925 tons of American beef, which have been stored in cold warehouses across the country since its shipment was banned in October last year, have completed quarantine processes so far and are likely to go on sale soon.

``Twenty one butchers nationwide will start to sell U.S. beef from this week through the end of this month at discounted prices,'' said Park Chang-gyu, president of the Korea Meat Import Association.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr