Korea to Import Tyson, Cargill, Swift Beef Soon
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
The Korea Times
11-03-2006
The United States' top three meat processing companies _ Tyson Foods, Cargill Meat Solutions and Swift & Co. _ will soon export beef to South Korea.
A senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in charge of livestock quarantine said Friday the government has no plan to ban beef imports from the three, despite their possible rule violations.
In the first half of 2006, delegates from the ministry found that the three companies, which hold about a 60 percent market share in the U.S. meat processing industry, were ineligible to export beef to Korea because of food safety.
Although the ministry did not make public the result of the delegates' investigation in the U.S. market, some Korean lawmakers recently unveiled the list of possible rule-violators.
The official said, ``There is no reason for the government to block their exports.'' He said that any U.S. beef exporter has been allowed to export beef to Korea since early September.
Asked whether he was ``100 percent certain'' about the safety of meat from U.S. cattle less than 30 months old, he neither confirmed nor denied. Korea has decided to allow imports of boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months.
According to data of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the percentage of symptoms for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, among cattle younger than 30 months comes to 0.05 percent worldwide.
times.hankooki.com
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
The Korea Times
11-03-2006
The United States' top three meat processing companies _ Tyson Foods, Cargill Meat Solutions and Swift & Co. _ will soon export beef to South Korea.
A senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in charge of livestock quarantine said Friday the government has no plan to ban beef imports from the three, despite their possible rule violations.
In the first half of 2006, delegates from the ministry found that the three companies, which hold about a 60 percent market share in the U.S. meat processing industry, were ineligible to export beef to Korea because of food safety.
Although the ministry did not make public the result of the delegates' investigation in the U.S. market, some Korean lawmakers recently unveiled the list of possible rule-violators.
The official said, ``There is no reason for the government to block their exports.'' He said that any U.S. beef exporter has been allowed to export beef to Korea since early September.
Asked whether he was ``100 percent certain'' about the safety of meat from U.S. cattle less than 30 months old, he neither confirmed nor denied. Korea has decided to allow imports of boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months.
According to data of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the percentage of symptoms for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, among cattle younger than 30 months comes to 0.05 percent worldwide.
times.hankooki.com