CATTLE: (Dow Jones) -- U.S. companies are seriously considering trying again
to sell beef to South Korea -- a country that has rejected every shipment since
September 2006 -- now that it has relaxed a particularly stringent regulation
that scared off U.S. exporters for months, U.S. industry and government
officials said this week.
The Bush administration is hoping South Korea will eventually agree to
substantial changes in the way it accepts U.S. beef, but at least one U.S.
company -- Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC -- has already decided it doesn't
want to wait that long.
Kevin Pentz, a Creekstone vice president, said a relatively small change
in South Korean policy to allow the country's inspectors to reject a single box
of beef rather than an entire shipment if a problem is found would be
sufficient for the company to export again.
Yang Ho Lee, the agriculture counselor at South Korea's embassy in the
U.S., said Wednesday that the country has indeed made that change in policy.
"The Korean government changed the requirement on the eighth of March,"
he said, and specified that would mean boxes with no problems, such as errant
bone fragments, would "pass quality requirements...and go to the market."
In three cases last year, South Korea rejected three entire shipments of
U.S. beef because inspectors said they found small pieces bone or cartilage in
a few boxes.
U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Terri Teuber confirmed that
South Korea has indeed made the change to its import rules to "reject only
boxes in which bone chips are detected and allow the remainder of the shipment
to be imported," but she stressed the U.S. believes the country needs to do
more.
USDA Secretary Mike Johanns told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview this
week that he expects South Korea to embrace international BSE safety standards
that would allow for substantially more trade, including bone-in beef products
from the U.S.
Where the heck is Agman these days? I would like to see what he has to say about Creekstone's unrelenting efforts to stop the Captive North American market created by BSE - bolstered by the greedy interests of the packers who in turn lead the Bush Administration.
Good luck Creekstone - I wish those who are left in the rubble after the Rcalf implosion would jump on your ship.
Randy