Beef Benefits From Bird Flu

Despite a regain in consumer interest for imported pork, ostensibly because of bird flu, South Korea's pork imports slightly decreased over the past year, both overall and from the U.S.  Contrastingly, beef imports volumes have surged, with the U.S. product the main beneficiary.  Korea Customs Service figures provided by Meat Export Federation South Korea director Ji-Hae Yang show South Korea's January-November overall pork imports very slightly dipped from 422,766 to 421,123 metric tons. During the same period, imports from the U.S. went down 4% from 129,224 to 124,093 tons. December 2016 import figures are not available yet.  South Korea is highly self-sufficient in pork, and domestic production continues to rise, Yang says, explaining the stagnancy of imported product volumes.