In Seoul
THERE was a mad scramble in the meat section at South Korean supermarkets last week and I was part of the crowd.
Reason?
Cheap American beef is finally back on the shelves of major supermarkets after a hiatus of five years, and I was one of the thousands that greeted its return with glee.
At one E-mart store - the Korean equivalent of Singapore’s NTUC supermarket - US beef was selling for less than half the price of Korean domestic beef.
A hundred grams of rump sold for 5,500 won (S$5.70) while an equivalent cut from US cattle was priced at 2,580 won (S$2.70).
On the first day of sale last Thursday, US beef sold a whooping 50 tons.
That is more than twice the combined sale of beef that comes from the other three main sources: South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. So much for the mad cow scare that brought tens of thousands to the streets just a few months back.
They were protesting the government’s decision to re-import US beef on the back of unfounded rumours such as Koreans having a gene that makes them more susceptible to mad-cow disease.
Yes, there are vested groups that protested last Thursday but they were duly ignored by the mass consumers. Who listens to these people when every won counts in this economic downturn?
Definitely not me!