U.S. beef returns

Following the one single case of mad cow disease in the U.S. in 2003, South Korea halted all imports. Australian and New Zealand beef exporters were happy because it meant more market share for them (Korea was our third largest market), but comsumers suffered because prices have been really high ever since.

Until this week. Lotte Department Store started selling fresh (not frozen) beef for the first time in four years, and people went crazy. According to this article, shoppers were buying whole cases of the stuff. It's understandable. U.S. imports are about half the price of domestic beef.

The store had to limit sales to a maximum 1kg, but later had to stop all sales entirely because of protestors decrying the pending U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

I was first thinking to go buy some last week when I heard it was going on sale -- I guess was better that I waited. South Korean farmers can be an angry lot, and rightly so: they stand a lot to lose from our less expensive, corn-fed, premium, grade A angus beef steaks. Yeah!

Go America!