U.S. Beef Exports Clear Key Korean Hurdle
SEOUL — U.S. beef has cleared a key hurdle in returning to South Korean restaurants after an absence of more than three years due to fears of mad cow disease, an importer said Friday.
27 April 2007
1 minute read
Bone chips, banned for potentially harboring the disease and which stymied three previous attempts by U.S. exporters to regain access to the lucrative market, were not discovered in the latest shipment of beef, said Lee Jong-kyung, president of beef importer NERP Corp.
“Everything’s fine,” Lee said of the six-ton shipment that arrived earlier this week. “No bone chips were found.”
Lee said he was informed of the result Thursday by the government’s National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service, which conducted the inspection.
The quarantine service declined to publicly confirm the result, saying only that there would be an announcement made Friday afternoon.
U.S. beef was banned by South Korea, Japan and other countries after mad cow disease was discovered in the U.S. in December 2003.
