By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Sales of American beef at local department stores didn't catch on in the first week of hitting shelves.

Hyundai Department Store said six of its nationwide shops sold a total of 15 million won ($11,244) worth of U.S. beef as of Thursday since setting off on selling the imported meat from April 4.

Sales were worse at two provincial Shinsegae Department Store shops that posted only 1.4 million won in sales during the same period.

At Hyundai, U.S. beef took up two percent of overall beef sales and were outnumbered by Australian beef's five percent, while hanwoo, Korean indigenous cattle, accounted for 93 percent. It had a similarly low share at Shinsegae as well, taking up 2.9 percent of all beef sales.

The outcome might make Shinsegae think twice about expanding American beef sales within its sales network, as its sales were far below earlier expectations, industry experts said.

"Customers here mostly prefer premium quality hanwoo over import beef, and the trend of U.S. beef avoidance is clearer among younger customers," said Lim Jong-gil, Shinsegae's meat buyer.

Both department stores stopped selling U.S. beef in December 2003 when a mad cow disease case was confirmed to lead to a blanket ban of its import. Its shipment was resumed last year following the completion of beef talks between the two countries.

American beef was on sale again in most major discount store franchises here late last year, but sales have been falling short of expectations so far.

E-mart, Homeplus and Lottemart resumed sales of the product in November, saying they will meet the growing demand for cheaper meat in the worsening global economic slump.

Last month, E-Mart sold some 3.7 billion won worth of U.S. beef, down 17 percent from the average monthly amount during the January-February period. Sales were tallied at 6.2 billion won in December and remained at almost the same level the next month before plummeting to 2.7 billion won in February.

The U.S. beef's market share has been behind Australia's since the beginning of this year, with a flashing lead over the archrival in the first month, E-Mart said.

Sales have sharply grown in Homeplus and Lottemart, mostly due to recent large-scale sales promotions.

The two franchises rolled out sales campaigns last month, cutting down their prices by up to 50 percent. Consequently, Lottemart posted more-than-doubled sales of American beef, while Homeplus had 60 percent growth from the previous month.

Industry sources say current sales betray initial predictions that U.S. beef would account for up to 30 percent in the Korean beef market.

"While senior customers are now familiar with the American product, younger ones still appear to be reluctant to go for its purchase," a spokesman of a local discount store said on condition of anonymity.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr