The import of French beef to Korea resumed for the first time in 24 years on Monday, with the French embassy in Korea and French experts touting it as a good opportunity for Koreans to enjoy diverse and quality meat produced in a sustainable way. Of the 22 kinds of beef produced across France, the country’s most representative and common Charolais beef is to be sold in Korea, both frozen and refrigerated. France, the largest producer of beef among EU countries with 17 million heads of cattle as of 2022, of which 10 million are for meat, halted exporting beef to Korea in 2000 due to an outbreak of mad cow disease or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Late last year, the Korean assembly agreed on the legal prerequisite for the import hygiene of French and Irish beef. While the process for French beef import began in June, the detailed sanitary certification took almost six months to complete, according to Claudine Girardo, an agricultural counselor for sanitary and phytosanitary issues for South Korea and Japan at the French embassy in Japan. “France remains the leading beef meat producer in the EU, producing 21 percent of beef meat in the EU.
Under natural and safe production methods, no hormones and no antibiotics are used to promote the growth of cattle. Also, we had food safety authorities from Korea audit the French slaughterhouses’ sanitary condition on a regular basis,” Girardo said during an event held to celebrate the resumption of French beef import to Korea at.