Beef
Beef, the favorite meat of South Koreans, was the first meat
opened to some trade. Largely because of internal price pressures,
beef
import quotas resumed in 1988 after 6 years of no trade. After
an unfavorable General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
ruling
and revocation of GATT balance-of-payments protection in 1989 (see
Policy), South Korea committed itself
to operating minimum import quotas. South Korea succeeded in postponing
the end of nontariff barriers until January 1, 2001, after which
the beef market was fully liberalized. The government agreed in
1995 to end the shelf-life rule (see Issues
and Analysis) that precluded imports of chilled beef. After
losing a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement case,
South Korea ended rules that allowed retail stores to sell either
domestic or imported beef, but not both (see Issues
and Analysis).
Over 1988-2003, substantial progress was made in reducing the barriers
to imports. South Korea became one of the largest beef-importing
countries in the world, as well as the second-largest market for
U.S. beef exports. This progress was interrupted at the end of 2003,
when South Korea banned imports of U.S. beef because of a case of
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow" disease)
in the United States. Without U.S. beef, South Korea's imports
in
2004 fell sharply, and beef consumption declined.
South Korea's beef marketing has undergone major changes. Its system
for grading carcasses began in 1993; before that, there was no grading
standard. Most beef was sold in relatively undifferentiated pieces,
cut from carcasses in butcher shops. Virtually all beef was sold
after being frozen, although most was thawed before retail sale.
In recent years, Hanwoo beef has been sold fresh and presented to
consumers according to a simple, three-level grading system. Supermarkets
offer a variety of cuts, wrapped and labeled with suggestions for
use.
South Korea's cattle were draft animals used in rice farming until
the 1960s. Since then, the domestic draft breed, called Hanwoo,
has been used for beef, furnishing over 80 percent of domestically
raised beef with the rest coming from the Holstein dairy herd.
Reflecting
their origin, many Hanwoo cattle are still raised on rice farms
as a sideline activity, often only one to four head at a time.
This
is particularly true for calf production, since fodder for one
or two cows can often be found on a small farm, using family labor
and roughage found on the margins of the farm. However, Hanwoo
cattle are increasingly being fed on grains and other concentrates,
and
the scale of feedlots fattening purchased calves and culled cows
is growing. Hanwoo slaughter weights have increased, mostly as
a
result of greater grain feeding but also because of genetic improvement.
The average slaughter weight for Hanwoo cattle was 485 kilograms
(kg) in 1995 and rose to 603 kg in 2004. South Korea's small scale
of cattle raising and shortage of pasture, however, are fundamental
constraints on the competitiveness of domestic beef production,
and the prospects for strong expansion are poor.
Another part of South Korea's beef supply comes from the dairy
sector. South Korea's dairy herd grew very quickly until the end
of the 1980s. Rapid increases in dairy cow numbers, however, are
not foreseen in the future. Comprised of Holstein cows, the herd
produces young male animals, heifers, and cull cows as byproducts.
Dairy cattle numbers peaked in 1995, and have gradually declined
since 2001. The average slaughter weight was 543
kg in 1995, rising to 620 in
2004. Dairy animals comprised about 16 percent of the cattle slaughtered
in 2004.
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