Traditionally Raised Cow Beef Only 75 Percent in the Market

Among domestic beef on sale in the market, beef of traditionally raised cows makes up only 75 percent and the rest 25 percent is the beef of milk cows.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) on the 20th, among 729,245 heads of cows butchered in the country, traditional cows accounted for 550,499, which is 75.5 percent.

The rest were milk cows (22.6 percent, 164,456 heads), beef cows (1.6 percent, 11.861 heads), and hybridized cow (0.3 percent, 2429 heads), respectively.

Considering the average weight of the butchered cows by species (traditional cow 540 kg, milk cow 592 kg, beef cow 596 kg, hybridized cow 610 kg), the ratio of traditional cow beef in domestic beef market has been lowered to 73.7 percent.

Self-sufficiency in beef production last year was estimated to be 43 percent, which is much lower than 52.7 percent in 2000, resulting in a ratio of traditional beef in the whole beef market to be only 32.5 percent. Self-sufficiency is calculated including cows butchered in the year, those brought forward from last year, and those in stock.

The cause of the self-sufficiency decrease last year was the reduction of the traditional cows bred.

Due to the reduction in self-sufficiency, false indications of the origin of beef are never letting up, counting 54 cases (26 percent) among 206 cases of false indication of beef origin, which were uncovered by the intensive control on the origin indication for farm products from December 20th 2001 till January 10th 2002.

Myung-Jai Lee mjlee@donga.com