By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Korean importers of American beef are conducting a large-scale sales promotion in an effort to sell thousands of tons of U.S. beef stored in cold warehouses across the country.
The Korea Import Beef Association (KIBA) said Monday it is now seeking to have about 200 affiliated members join a massive discount sale until the end of July.
The importers' group said the prices drop by as much as 30 percent during the promotion.
"We plan to choose around 80 importer companies to participate," KIBA president Park Chang-gyu said. "Importers selling the meat individually are likely to face anti-U.S. beef protesters. So I thought it would be better for us to act together."
About 85 tons of U.S. beef out of 5,300 tons in frozen storage in Gyeonggi Province and Busan will be available on the market immediately as they passed all quarantine check-up processes, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the National Veterinary Research Quarantine Service.
With quarantine certificates issued, the checked beef is expected to go on sale this week. Quarantine processes are continuing for some of the rest of the stored meat at the request of its importers.
Sales have been restricted since October last year, when imports were banned as some bone chips were found in a shipment.
With bigger retailers still reluctant to accept U.S. beef in their stores, KIBA said most of the meat would be sold at butchers and restaurants under its direct management.
An importer explained the biggest concern is to dispose of the stock as soon as possible and it will make most meat dealers roll back the prices.
"I will get them on sale quickly after the check-up even at a loss," the beef dealer said on condition of anonymity. "The beef will sell at similarly low prices because many other importers share the same idea as me."
Some of the meat is in dire need of disposal. About 1,000 ton of the whole storage was imported as chilled meat but kept frozen because of the import suspension.
The circulation period of that kind of beef is one year, half that of normal frozen meat, which means most will expire in two or three months at best.
It still remains to be seen how the strategy will work as consumers are showing different reactions to the decision to resume U.S. beef imports.
"It seems to be an understandable approach. For the importers, it's important to get a foot in the door," Yang Seung-joon, an Oriental medicinal doctor in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, said.
"The meat in storage now doesn't look particularly dangerous, but we still can't be too careful about safety because still not much has been discovered about mad cow disease yet."
Some consumers were more negative about the promotion.
"It is nothing more than a cheap trick to dispose of old meat. Anyhow, I don't think I will eat U.S. beef under these circumstances," said Kim Han-bom, a teacher at a private institute in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.