Koreans Hungry for Pork

Data provided by Korea’s Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, shows that Korea’s self-sufficiency rate of pork dropped to the lowest point ever last year. The rate stood at 60.3 per cent, down 20.6 percentage points from a year earlier. The reason was the massive culling of pigs in the wake of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks from November, 2010 to April of last year. About 3.3 million pigs were culled nationwide due to the disease.

The massive culling led to more imports of pork throughout the year, causing Korea’s self-sufficiency rate to drop to the lowest level in history. Pork production for the year was down 192-thousand tones over the previous year. Meanwhile, Korea’s pork imports more than doubled to 374-thousand tones.

Data shows, too, that self-sufficiency ratios of beef and chicken also dropped to their lowest levels since 2003. Their ratios stood at 42.8 per cent and 77.4 per cent, respectively.