South Korea, the third-largest buyer of U.S. beef in 2003, rejected the first shipment of the meat to arrive in the nation since lifting a three-year ban, saying it found a tiny bone fragment that violated an agreement.
The beef, which will be returned or destroyed, came from Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, Kang Mun Il, director general at the National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service said today. Further shipments from Creekstone have been barred until it provides an explanation for the piece of bone, Kang said. Other beef shipments from the U.S. are unaffected.
Telephone calls by Bloomberg News to numbers on the Web site of Creekstone were not answered.
South Korea lifted its ban on U.S. beef imports in September after concluding U.S. processors were taking adequate steps to prevent the spread of mad-cow disease, limiting supplies to boneless beef. Global meat suppliers, including U.S. competitors from Australia, have been waiting to see how South Korean authorities handle the inaugural shipment.
“Nearly every American exporter of beef is waiting to see what will happen to that” first U.S. shipment, said Malcolm Foster, managing director of Marubeni Corp.’s Rangers Valley Cattle unit in Australia. “If this shipment gets rejected, I think no U.S. supplier will supply to Korea any more.” U.S. beef suppliers to South Korea must ensure that bones, intestines, spinal cord and brains are removed from the meat, the South Korean agriculture ministry had said. The beef must also come from cattle no older than 30 months.
Disqualified Shipment The bone fragment “goes against the agreement with the U.S. to ship only boneless beef, so we disqualified the shipment,” Kang said. “We will decide whether to resume imports from that company after we receive a logical explanation that we can understand.” The bone measured about 10 millimeters long and 6 millimeters wide.
South Korea had imported 8.9 metric tons of beef from the U.S. on Oct. 30.
The country will ask the U.S. to strictly adhere to the boneless meat agreement, Kang said.
