Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/21/09

Korean consumer attitudes toward U.S. beef appear to be improving from earlier in the year, when negative publicity from protests against the reopening of the market prompted a strong preference for Australian beef.

So says Keith Miller, a farmer-stockman from Great Bend, Kan., and vice chairman of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, who recently returned to Asia to study market conditions in not only South Korea but also in China and Japan.

Miller said he noticed a contrast between consumer attitudes today and in March during his last visit, when he witnessed Korean consumers snubbing U.S. beef in favor of Australian beef despite the former's cheaper price. This time, however, "We could see a lot of people going and buying our product and walking right past the Aussie product," he said.

Miller said an uptick in demand has helped the industry reduce backlogged inventories of U.S. beef, and is stimulating new interest from importers and distributors. He said U.S. product in cold storage is roughly half of what it was when he last visited Korea in March.

"You can tell consumers are beginning to want our product back and are buying quite a bit of it now," he said, adding that U.S. beef is "a quality product that's safe and has good taste and flavor because it's grain-fed. The Aussie product, for the most part, is grass-fed. It's just not as tender and doesn't have the quality and taste that [U.S. beef has]."

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