By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

President Lee Myung-bak said the government will enforce accurate place-of-origin labels for imported U.S. beef.

The President made the pledge while meeting with a group of cattle farmers in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, over the weekend.

Lee has been facing heat from Korean cattle farmers for his agreement earlier this month with the United States to resume U.S. beef imports.

Imported U.S. beef cuts are generally cheaper than Korean beef but many domestic consumers continue to favor beef from homegrown cattle, called ``hanwoo," because it isn't at risk of mad cow disease. Many consumers also favor Korean beef because of its distinct flavor and texture often not found in the American beef.

In the past, some Korean restaurants and butchers were reported to have exploited this consumer preference, disguising cheaper imported U.S. beef as Korean beef and selling it at a higher price.
President Lee told cattle growers that ``simply enforcing accurate place-of-origin labeling on imported beef at restaurants and meat markets would boost Korean beef sales.''

``My administration will enforce accurate place-of-origin labeling. This would be a practical measure to help Korean cattle growers as well as consumers," Lee said.

Regarding opening up the domestic market, Lee said the Korean market should be open to all countries and their products and let consumers make the decision on whether to purchase them or not.

``Our administration is responsible for helping Korean farmers and cattle growers to turn this into a new opportunity, and not just stop at offering farmers monetary compensation. Our administration would be responsible for making Korean cattle growers more competitive in this open-market environment,'' Lee said.

President Lee said the Korean cattle farmers must work on branding the homegrown Korean beef as premier products that are higher in quality than imported meat.

Lee pointed to the Japanese beef market as a possible example. ``In Japan, there continues to be a great demand for premier-quality, high-end Japanese beef," he said, adding that as Korean gross domestic products continues to rise, Korean consumers will continue to seek domestic Korean beef.

``In Korea, top-quality cattle sells for around 35 million won ($35,000) each but top cattle in Japan sells for as much as 100 million won ($100,000)."

President Lee also said his administration will consider providing additional subsidies to public schools to use more Korean beef in their cafeteria luncheon menu.

Lee's latest pledge to help Korean cattle farmers may not be enough to win their support.

Last Friday, some 6,000 farmers representing Korean cattle growers staged a protest near Seoul. A hanwoo association of Korean cattle farmers, which organized the event, urged President Lee to scrap the agreement to resume U.S. beef imports and stop bowing to pressure from Washington.

Since Lee announced the import agreement with Washington, the price for domestic cattle has been tumbling, down nearly 10 percent at one point last week, according to Nonghyup's livestock price index.

Korea first banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 when the United States confirmed a case of mad cow disease from its cattle stock. A limited import was to resume last year but was halted when some imported beef cuts were found to contain bone, which run the biggest risk of transmitting the mad cow disease to humans.

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