South Korea abolishes pork import tax

South Korea has announced a package of measures to reduce inflation in the country. Lowering import tariffs on a wide range of food products is one of them.

Inflation in the country rose to 5,4% in May and was even higher than the projected 5,1%. To meet the purchasing power of lower incomes, the government in the country is now making the cut. Reducing the import tariffs on numerous types of food should help with this. Pork is one of the products for which the import tariff is being reduced. This goes to 0% for countries with which South Korea has a trade agreement, coming from 25%. In recent months, insiders from the meat world have been talking about smooth demand from South Korea.

Import volumes almost doubled
Over the first three months of the year, the volume imported by South Korea from the European Union has almost doubled. This is according to figures from the European statistical office Eurostat. While in January, February and March 2021 an average of around 16.000 tons of pork was still imported from countries affiliated to the European Union, this volume was over 2022 tons in the same months in 30.000. Lifting import tariffs could potentially boost demand from the country

Steve Wissink

Stef Wissink is an editor at Boerenbusiness and writes about current market developments in the dairy and pig market. He also follows Dutch and international agribusiness.

s.wissink@boerenbusiness. Nl

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