US beef imports jumping amid FMD spread

By Kang Seung-woo

U.S. beef is enjoying a huge turnaround in Korea. Its imports to the country made a sharp leap thanks to the devastating foot-and-mouth (FMD) outbreak here, according to industry data, Sunday.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation said that Korea imported 84,822 tons of U.S. beef in 2010, up 42.6 percent compared to the previous year. This bettered the nation’s overall increase in beef imports of 16.2 percent.

American beef accounted for 32.5 percent of the nation’s imported beef market last year, up from 26.5 percent the preceding year. It trimmed the deficit with market-leading Australian beef, whose share was 53 percent in the same year.

It is a strong comeback for U.S. beef. Korea prohibited the import of American beef in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was discovered and the ban remained in place until 2008.

The decision to resume imports triggered two months of huge demonstrations, inflamed by biased television reports portraying U.S. beef as a possible transmission vector for the human variant of mad cow disease.

The industry attributed the animal epidemic to the fast-growing demand for U.S. beef.

The current FMD outbreak was first confirmed in November and it has spread nationwide, forcing over 3 million livestock to be killed thus far. Financial losses have risen to more than 2 trillion won ($1.79 billion) and led to a drop in meat supplies.

In December, imports of U.S. beef underwent a sudden increase to nearly 2,500 tons a week, well above the average of 2,000 tons, the data noted.

The U.S. leads the imported pork market with 26.1 percent, or 75,362 tons, followed by Canada with an 18.9 percent share.

“As local meat supplies decline due to FMD and public concerns rise over the disease, Korea is expected to increase its dependence on imported meat,” an industry official said.