USDA trade delegation sees vibrant market for US red meat in Korea
The delegation included representatives from the National Pork Board and USMEF member Nature’s SunGrown Foods, as well as five state departments of agriculture – Arkansas, California, Kansas, Indiana and North Dakota.
The trade mission included bilateral meetings with Korean industry and government officials, visits to retail promotions featuring U.S. products and business meetings between trade mission delegates and Korean companies looking to import U.S. agriculture products.
The mission also celebrated the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, a key to South Korea’s ranking as the fifth-largest market for U.S. agricultural and related products with more than $8 billion in exports in 2023. The top two U.S. agricultural related export categories to Korea in 2023 were beef and beef variety meat ($2.1 billion) and pork and pork variety meat ($633 million).
Highlights from the trade mission included tours of an E-Mart Traders Wholesale Club and a Lotte Mart store – both major sales outlets for U.S. red meat. USMEF helped coordinate store visits where delegates observed in-store sampling promotions of U.S. beef and pork.
USMEF Vice President of Asia Pacific Jihae Yang and Korea Director Junil Park also attended a USDA-led roundtable discussion about the Korean market for trade mission delegates.
During the roundtable discussion, Yang reports that Mark Dries, agricultural minister-counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, shared his observations with the group about how well-received U.S. red meat products are in the Korean market and how the U.S. industry has successfully regained Korean consumers’ confidence in the safety of U.S. beef.
Beef Beef exports have lifted 27% from November 2023 to 118,878 tonnes. Keeping with the trend s...
Pork exports reached 252,411 mt in October, up 3% from a year ago, while value also climbed 3% to...
The biggest decline in a country comparison is predicted for the Netherlands, where the pig popul...
