Many South Korean consumers have reacted to their government’s ban on beef ...

Many South Korean consumers have reacted to their government’s ban on beef from the United States with a heightened anxiety about food safety; other reactions are more anti-American.

On the food safety front, Korean consumers have been confronted by a series of animal disease scares — the U.S. discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), avian influenza in many parts of the world, foot and mouth disease and hog cholera, to name a few. As a result, Korean consumers tend to react strongly to news of food safety concerns.

Consumers also have exhibited anti-American sentiment as discussions about market reopening accelerate, and they assume that the United States will solve this issue by trying to intimidate South Korea. This is largely due to the media moving its focus from food safety to trade friction between Korea and the United States. Although the number of media articles has decreased, the tone is still negative. Additionally, Korean media reports drive consumers’ negative perceptions of U.S. beef.

In an attempt to deal with both issues, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) has been working with Korean officials and industry representatives to promote beef consumption even before the ban on U.S. product is lifted. The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture had asked the United States to help it educate Korean consumers about the safety of beef and USDA Under Secretary J.B. Penn had pledged to provide cooperation to the Korean government. USMEF has worked with retailers to promote frozen U.S. beef stocks since May and began an educational advertising campaign promoting beef consumption this summer. In addition, USMEF designed a seminar to set up discussions between BSE experts, Korean consumer and producer organizations to discuss BSE, objectively and scientifically. The Korean Meat Journal sponsored the recent one-day seminar. Topics, presented by non-U.S. professionals, including:

• Worldwide BSE Outbreak and Korea’s Response, by Professor Lee Yongsoon, Veterinary School, Seoul National University
• BSE Situation in Japan and Progress of US-Japanese Technical Talks, byKatsuki Sgiwoora, a member of Japan’s Food Safety Committee and the Head of the Japanese government‘s U.S. – Japan BSE Working Group.
• Worldwide BSE Situation and How to Protect Consumer Safety, by Dr. Dagmar Heim, Swiss Veterinary Office.

The government of Korea has been blunt in stating that consumer opinions need to change before they will take the risk of lifting the ban. Therefore, in addition to dissemination of accurate information about BSE, the seminar was an important tool to gauge the reaction of the participants and the media about how amenable they are to resuming trade. Reactions from the seminar and similar activities encouraged USMEF to go forward with more visible U.S. beef promotions such as the Beef Awareness Campaign, which began in May with a series of three newspaper advertisements with an overall theme of “There’s Nothing Better Than Beef.” 

The speakers emphasized that meat and milk products are safe even if produced from an animal infected with BSE (U.S. regulations would prevent such animals from entering the food supply). Scientific evidence concludes that only specific risk materials (SRM) — the skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age or older and the tonsils and small intestine of all cattle — can transmit the BSE prion. All other beef products, even in the extremely unlikely eventuality that they were derived from an animal suffering from BSE, could be eaten safely without any risk of people consuming the BSE prion, speakers concluded.

The speakers also pointed out that even though South Korea has had no BSE cases in its domestic herd, it should enact a law comparable to the U.S. practice mandating the removal of SRMs.

Professor Lee told those attending that getting BSE from eating beef is much less likely than being hit by lightning while playing golf.

A panel discussion followed. USMEF was careful to ensure that the panel included representatives of Korean producers and consumers:

• Mr. Sungdo Jeon, Korean Peasants League (KPL)
• Mr. Kisun Jang, Korea Hanwoo Association (KHA)
• Mr. Namyong Kim, Korea Dairy and Beef Farmers Association (KDBFA)
• Ms. Sunok Hwang, Consumers Korea (CK)
• Mr. Jangil Yang, Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM)
• Ms. Younmi Cho, Green Consumers’ Network in Korea (GCNK)

Korean beef demand has disastrously declined since the U.S. BSE case announcement. Although South Korea sent a BSE technical team to the United States in May, USMEF doesn’t expect it to lift its ban before Japan.

Korea’s Yoenhap News Service reported on the seminar under the title, “Chances for Getting Mad-Cow Disease are Lower Than Being Hit by Lightning during a Golfing Round.”

The United States provided 68 percent of all imported beef prior to the ban, and domestic prices rose in response to the ban, although the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) reports that Hanwoo steer prices were 22 percent lower in June than in late December. Despite this fall in cattle prices, a drop in consumption and a sluggish economy, Hanwoo beef prices remain 3.5 times higher than imported beef, and Australian and New Zealand prices have increased 15 percent. The majority of consumers who previously bought U.S. beef have turned to substitutes such as pork and fish.

In 2003, the United States exported 246,958 metric tons of beef and beef variety meat to South Korea, valued at $815.8 million.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –