01/16/06 Korea partially reopens to U.S. beef

American Rancher January 16, 2006 The U.S. and South Korea announced Friday they reached an agreement that will mean some U.S. beef will be headed back to Korea possibly starting in March. The South Koreans agreed to accept only boneless beef but they will take it from cattle under 30 months of age. Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says they are glad of the partial Korean reopening, but aren't satisfied. Doud: "We are not 100 percent pleased here because we didn't have variety meats. That's about 47 million out of 815 million dollars. And we don't have bone-in product yet which is anywhere from about 36 to 47% of what we have done in Korea. So we are still missing 45% of our business or so, plus or minus. So we've got a little over half." Korea had prohibited imports of U.S. beef and beef products since December of 2003 following the detection of BSE in a single cow of Canadian origin in Washington state. Before the ban took effect, the U.S. exported 815 million dollars worth of beef and beef products to Korea, of which 449 million was boneless beef. USDA says the U.S. has now recovered access to markets valued at more than 3.2 billion dollars or 82 percent of the 2003 export value of 3.9 billion. I'm Bob Hoff.