U.S. beef sales outpace Australian imports

SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Yonhap) -- Sales of U.S. beef have outpaced Australian imports on their first day on sale at South Korea's large discount outlets, industry sources said Friday.

The country's top three retailers said combined sales of U.S. beef reached 50.1
tons on Thursday, 33 percent higher than the 37.3 tons originally anticipated.
E-Mart, Lottemart and Homeplus had refrained from handling U.S. beef even after
the ban was officially lifted in late June because they were afraid of a public
backlash. These stores, however, announced a change of plans early this week.
The three stores added that Australian beef came in second with sales reaching
45.2 tons, followed by 20.1 tons for local hanwoo beef being sold during the day.

South Korea banned all U.S. beef imports in Dec. 2003 after a mad cow case was
confirmed in Washington state on the west coast. It allowed imports of boneless
cuts in April, 2007, but again halted all quarantine inspections in October after
a backbones packages were discovered among imports. At at time backbonese were
classified as a banned material.
Seoul and Washington has since signed a revised sanitation agreement in April
that allows most beef cuts to be imported with the exception of specified risk
materials that include such parts as tonsils, and certain parts of cattle
intestines. All beef shipped to South Korea must be from cattle under 30 months
old.
Experts, meanwhile, said that arrival of cheap U.S. meat has triggered 20-50
percent price cuts in both Australian and hanwoo meat as well as a lowering of
prices for pork.
South Korean consumers generally prefer U.S. meat to Australian imports that may
cost slightly less at stores. Hanwoo beef usually costs 2-3 times more than U.S.
meat.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)