By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Korea's beef imports decreased last year for the first time in five years amid prevailing worries over mad cow disease.
The nation imported 197,857 tons of frozen and chilled meat on a customs-cleared basis in 2009, down 11.7 percent from 224,147 tons a year before, according to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Korea Meat Trade Association.
Imports plunged in 2004 after Seoul banned all U.S. beef imports in the wake of the first suspected case of bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE) reported in America in late 2003.
Australia stayed Korea's largest beef importer with 116,714 tons, ahead of the United States and New Zealand. Imports of U.S. beef in 2009 fell 6.2 percent to 49,973 tons.
In contrast, homegrown cattle, or ``hanwoo,'' accounted for more than 50 percent of the market, the highest share in nine years.
The decline of beef imports last year shows the public sentiment toward the U.S. products has yet to turn positive, industry watchers said, considering that imports throughout 2009 were smaller than those for five months in the previous year.
Seoul lifted its restrictions in August 2008, but sales didn't improve afterward as safety concerns reemerged last year.
The prosecution sought a legal action against producers of ``PD Note,'' a current affairs documentary program by local television broadcaster MBC, on charges of defaming government officials involved in the talks on resuming beef imports with the United States.
They ``intentionally distorted the truth about the disease and the negotiation procedures'' in a series of episodes concerning the beef issue, the prosecution claimed. However, a local court cleared PD Note producers last year, ruling that there was no evidence their reports were intended to manipulate public opinion.
The overall decrease also suggests the government has still a long way to go to ease lingering distrust among Korean consumers on meat safety.
Seoul introduced a beef-tracking system in June last year, which forces all indigenous meat to be labeled with all the cattle procedures from birth to slaughtering.
All local restaurants and distributors are currently subject to regulations that require them to clarify the country of origin for main ingredients such as rice, kimchi and meat.
However, no violators have been announced by the government. Earlier this month, a group of progressive lawyers disclosed a list of 700 places that broke the rules in the wake of a request to release the information to the public.
hckim@koreatimes.co.kr
