Import Barriers Maintain Korean
Beef Prices Six Times U.S. Level
By Richard Smith
South Korean consumers may question their government's severe safety standards for U.S. beef after a report showing the high prices they must pay.
South Korea's Yonhap News agency on Monday released an analysis it made of food price statistics from the International Labor Organization.
The survey of 13 leading economies showed that as of October 2005, the average price of a kilogram of beef in South Korea was $56.44 U.S., six times more expensive than in the United States itself, at $8.94.
The report showed that as of the same period, South Korea's pork prices were usually 2.5 to three times more expensive than in Britain and Brazil. A kilo of boneless pork cost $14.12 in South Korea, compared to $5.56 in Britain and $4.94 in Brazil, Yonhap reported.
An official at South Korea's ministry of agriculture and forestry told Yonhap that high land prices and the relatively small size of most cattle and pig raising farms are the main reasons for the high cost of local products.
"An inability to reach economy of scale affects prices," he said. Most cattle growers in South Korea only raise a handful of animals, while pig farms, which are not generally large either, have faced pressure to meet tighter standards for waste disposal, causing smaller pig growers to close.
High beef and pork prices are one reason foreign governments have called for greater market access, Yonhap said.
South Korean authorities refused all three U.S. beef shipments to South Korea since a December 2003 ban because of BSE was lifted last September, after finding a few tiny bone chips by X-ray inspections. Bone is forbidden under a U.S.-South Korea agreement.
Beef Prices Six Times U.S. Level
By Richard Smith
South Korean consumers may question their government's severe safety standards for U.S. beef after a report showing the high prices they must pay.
South Korea's Yonhap News agency on Monday released an analysis it made of food price statistics from the International Labor Organization.
The survey of 13 leading economies showed that as of October 2005, the average price of a kilogram of beef in South Korea was $56.44 U.S., six times more expensive than in the United States itself, at $8.94.
The report showed that as of the same period, South Korea's pork prices were usually 2.5 to three times more expensive than in Britain and Brazil. A kilo of boneless pork cost $14.12 in South Korea, compared to $5.56 in Britain and $4.94 in Brazil, Yonhap reported.
An official at South Korea's ministry of agriculture and forestry told Yonhap that high land prices and the relatively small size of most cattle and pig raising farms are the main reasons for the high cost of local products.
"An inability to reach economy of scale affects prices," he said. Most cattle growers in South Korea only raise a handful of animals, while pig farms, which are not generally large either, have faced pressure to meet tighter standards for waste disposal, causing smaller pig growers to close.
High beef and pork prices are one reason foreign governments have called for greater market access, Yonhap said.
South Korean authorities refused all three U.S. beef shipments to South Korea since a December 2003 ban because of BSE was lifted last September, after finding a few tiny bone chips by X-ray inspections. Bone is forbidden under a U.S.-South Korea agreement.