Meat Industry INSIGHTS Newsletter

971113 Asia-Pacific Meat Imports "Stable-to-Higher" Says USME

November 4, 1997

SAN DIEGO, CA - Meat imports to Asian and Pacific Rim nations appear to be on a stable to higher track for 1998, an official with the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) said.

Several major countries in the region were projected to have increases in imports of beef, pork or both next year, including South Korea, Taiwan and China, said Joel Haggard, the organisation's VP for the Asia Pacific region.

This was despite potentially negative economic effects from recent currency and stock market turmoil, he said. "I think total imports to Korea are going to be up for both beef and pork," said Haggard. "I think the Hong Kong dollar is going to hold. The market is starting to settle down."

With the weakness in Asian currencies and a strong U.S. dollar, the 1998 outlook for U.S. market share of meat imports was somewhat mixed, Haggard said. U.S. market share of beef imports to seven Asia or Pacific Rim nations was projected to be static or down in six of seven nations cited.

However, Haggard looked for the United States to at least maintain its strong beef market share in one of its top customers -- South Korea, which ranks among the top four in world importers of U.S. beef.

From January through August of this year, South Korea imported 64,112 tonnes of beef from the United States, compared to 54,278 tonnes during the same period in 1996, according to Haggard.

U.S. market share of South Korean beef imports in 1997 was estimated at 54 percent, compared to 52 percent in 1996.

The U.S. position is helped by a 20,000-tonne increase in South Korea's beef import quota in 1998. The increase brings the quota to 187,000 tonnes.

"Total imports are going to go up because the quota is expanding," Haggard said. "If we have a 55 percent market share, our total imports should go up."

In addition to economic concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. meat industry has also been dealing with a bacterial scare. South Korean officials found the O-157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria in a small portion of U.S. beef in storage there. The bacterium is an especially virulent form of E. coli that can cause kidney failure and death.

South Korean supermarket sales of U.S. beef dropped sharply in September following news of the E. coli discovery, but have since recovered.

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