S. Korea to resume pork exports to Japan

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will resume pork exports to Japan this
month for the first time in nine years, the government said Sunday.
Pork exports from Jeju Island are to be shipped to Japan on Sept. 28. The
shipments were halted in 2000 after outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and hog
cholera were confirmed.
Both diseases are highly contagious and can result in trade restrictions being
imposed by foreign countries.
"The decision to allow pork shipments was effectively reached in August at a
bilateral quarantine and sanitation meeting," a ministry official said.
He said that resumption of exports from South Korea's largest island off the
southern coast will help local farmers find new outlets for the meat they
produce.
South Korean pig farmers have been hurt by free trade agreements with foreign
countries that have led to a influx of cheap imports from abroad.
The ministry said that the lifting of the ban could help the government meet its
pork export target of US$500 million and bolster South Korea's efforts to be
declared a "hog cholera free" region by 2014.
Besides the resumption of exports of fresh Jeju pork, two local food companies on
the mainland have won the right to ship processed pork products to Japan. The
first shipments of processed pork are expected to take place in October.
In 1999, the country export $339.8 million worth of pork mainly to Japan, but the
total plunged to $22.2 million in 2002 and declined to just $10.4 million last
year.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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