Korea big demand for Australian beef
THE biggest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in South Korea's history has claimed 3.4 million domestic pigs and cattle.
The kill comes at a cost of more than $3 billion.
The kill comes at a cost of more than $3 billion.
Meat and Livestock Australia's regional manager for Korea Jim Lim said the FMD crisis had affected short-term beef supplies and forced a switch from domestically produced beef to imports from the US and Australia.
But he said it was important South Korea's domestic beef industry recovered for growth of the sector.
"Korea is still our third largest export market and will be for a while," Mr Lim said.
"Koreans eat 12kg of beef (a year), which is quite low. Long term, there's a lot of potential here. Hanwoo (local beef) needs to get back on track for the beef industry (in Korea) to grow."
Since the latest outbreak in November, 2 per cent of the Korean cattle herd, and 30 per cent of its pig herd have been culled.
While the spread seems to have slowed, the cost of vaccinating almost 13 million livestock and compensating farmers for culled stock will top $3 billion, which doesn't account for the indirect losses sustained by the food sector, Mr Lim said.
"Short-term supply issues have put pressure on prices for pork ... beef is now cheaper than pork and Koreans eat a lot more pork than beef," he said.
Mr Lim said because FMD had affected beef and pork, and now poultry, demand for beef had held up.
"Consumers have had no choice between meat proteins," he said...
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http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/02/23/299061_business-news.html
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au