Price of indigenous beef cattle 'hanwoo' hits record high in Q4

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- Prices for a head of domestically raised beef cattle
hit a record high in the fourth quarter of last year due to a surge in demand, a
government report showed Thursday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, the price for one of the South
Korean breed of cattle, known as "hanwoo," averaged 5.73 million won (US$5,045)
per 600-kilogram head as of November 2009, compared with 5.54 million won
reported eight years ago.
The state-run agency said the price increase stemmed from a rise in demand for
locally grown beef as the market share held by imported beef has fallen.
A total of 2.63 million head of hanwoo cattle were raised in South Korea during
the October-December period, down 0.2 percent from three months earlier, due
partly to seasonal factors, the report said.
The number of pigs raised here rose 2.2 percent from a quarter earlier to some
9.58 million during the reported period, the highest figure since the second half
of 2007, boosted by increased pork prices and stabilizing feed prices, it said.
During the three-month period, the number of chickens raised for egg production
rose 1.6 percent from the previous quarter to around 62.96 million due to an
upswing in egg prices, with the number of chickens used for meat falling off 1.4
percent to some 67.19 million, the report said.
jia@yna.co.kr
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