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U.S. Beef Has Great Opportunity in South Korea

With this week's deal that will start U.S. flowing back into South Korea, there is a great opportunity for U.S. cattle producers. Although it's still unclear just how much beef South Korea will import, USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam says looking at numbers from 2003 before the ban because of BSE shows a positive outlook.

"Korea and Mexico were basically neck and neck as the second largest market for U.S. exports," Shagam says. "We were looking on a carcass weight basis about 158 million pounds which was about 23% of total trade that year."

Exports to Korea in 2003 represented over $850 million to U.S producers. When the ban was partially lifting in 2007, Shagam says the U.S. did sell quite a bit of beef before imports were shut down. He says there is strong demand for U.S. beef in South Korea and some golden opportunities for U.S. producers.