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SEOUL - Major South Korean retailers said Tuesday they would resume US beef sales for the first time since mass protests against the imports rocked the country, citing the need for cheap food during hard times.
The Korea Chainstores Association said US beef would be back on shelves from Thursday at the top three discount stores -- Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Homeplus, which is owned by Britain's Tesco.
"The retailers agreed that they had no reason to continue keeping the low-priced US beef off the shelves in consideration of consumers' convenience and price stability in this economic slump," an association statement said.
US beef is about half the price of local "hanwoo" beef.
South Korea was once the world's third-largest market for US beef, with imports worth 850 million dollars per year until they were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease.
Last year authorities briefly resumed imports of boneless beef from cattle aged under 30 months, but these were suspended after banned bone chips were found in some shipments.
In hopes of pushing ahead with a wider free trade deal, the Seoul government in April agreed to resume imports of most cuts of US beef. But the pact sparked months of mass street protests, ostensibly over mad cow disease fears.
The sometimes violent rallies subsided only after Seoul secured extra health safeguards for the meat. Sales resumed on July 1 but only at small shops.
Imports of US beef have recently topped those from other countries despite the restricted retail outlets.
Between September 1 and November 18, 32,678 tonnes of US beef was imported, accounting for 56 per cent of the total and compared with 22,400 tonnes of Australian beef, quarantine authorities said.
- AFP/ir
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