Consumers are turning to imported meat at a rapid pace as prices for domestic beef and pork climb. Retail prices for hanwoo, Korean-bred beef, have risen more than 20% in two years, while sales of imported pork at large discount chains have jumped more than 30% so far this year. With inflation persisting, shoppers are increasingly looking to trim costs in the meat aisle.
Sales of imported pork at E-Mart and its warehouse chain Traders rose 32.2% in the January-August period from a year earlier, E-Mart said on the 17th. Growth in imported pork sales accelerated to the 30% range this year, from 18.8% in 2024 and 12.4% last year. Domestic pork sales rose just 12.6% over the same period. That marked an improvement from 1.0% in 2024 and 5.3% last year, but fell far short of the gain for imports.
Imported beef sales rose 12.0% in the first eight months of the year, outpacing the 7.3% increase for domestic beef. In 2024, domestic beef sales grew 7.5%, far ahead of the 1.0% rise for imports. Imported beef overtook domestic beef last year, and the gap widened this year.
Rising prices for domestic meat are seen as the main driver behind the shift. Hanwoo retail prices reached 24,245 won per 500 grams in July, up 14.7% from 21,130 won a year earlier, according to the Korea Meat Trade Association. Compared with 19,285 won in July 2024, the increase comes to 25.7%. Pork rose 5.9% to 14,375 won per 500 grams this July from 13,575 won a year earlier.
At Lotte Mart, imports accounted for 29% of total pork sales in the January-July period this year, up from 13% in 2024 and 17% a year earlier. The share climbed 16 percentage points in just two years, more than doubling. The share of domestic pork fell to 71% from 87% over the same period.
Import volumes also grew. Pork imports totaled 330,555 tons in the first seven months of the year, up 14.3% from a year earlier. Frozen pork led the increase at 305,388 tons, up 14.7%, outpacing the 10.6% rise for chilled pork. Beef imports rose 7.7% to 304,690 tons over the same period, with frozen beef up 10.2% at 248,234 tons. Demand has centered on frozen meat, which is cheaper and can be stored longer.
Improved supply conditions for imports have also played a role. Under the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, the 2.6% tariff on American beef that applied last year was eliminated entirely on Jan. 1. In Europe, local pork prices have fallen, and shipments from countries including Denmark and Poland have risen sharply.
Industry officials expect demand for imports to hold up as long as meat prices remain elevated. Price competitiveness has become a key purchasing consideration not only for households but also for restaurants and institutional caterers facing higher ingredient costs, they said. "As freezing and packaging technology has advanced, the perceived quality gap between domestic and imported meat has narrowed compared with the past," an official in the food industry said. "As price pressure builds, more consumers are weighing both price and quality rather than looking only at the country of origin."
