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Food News Clipping

May 15, 2012

2012.05.15

FAS/Seoul Monitoring of Media Reporting on Agricultural Issues

Today's Date:      Tuesday, May 15, 2012

For Coverage:     May 14 - 15, 2012

  

 
 

1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

 

2 Months after KORUS FTA ¡¦ Retail Price of Imported American Ag Products Does Not Reflect Import Duty Reduction Enough ¡¦ In Case of Fresh Cherry, This Year¡¯s Price is Even Higher than Last Year¡¯s Despite Elimination of 24% Import Duty [Korean, OSY]

http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2012051429911&sid=010405&nid=004&ltype=1

Summary: Price survey in the retail store indicates that retail price of imported American agricultural product in general has yet to reflect the reduction in import duty.

 

Table: Change of Retail Price Before & 2 Month After the KORUS FTA (Hankyung Economic Daily)

Product

Current Price

Last Year¡¯s Price

Change (%)

Fresh cherries (300g)

W12,800

W9,900

29.3%

Fresh orange (ea)

W1,100

W1,150

-4.3%

Fresh grapes

W7,700

W7,900

-2.5%

Chilled chuck eye roll beef

W2,200

W2,080

5.8%

Carlo Rossi red wine (750 ml)

W7,900

W8,800

-10.2%

Welchi¡¯s Juice (1 L)

W3,700

W4,050

-8.6%

Miller beer (355 ml)

W2,050

W2,050

0%

Pistachios (100 g)

W3,000

W3,500

-14.3%

 

2. MARKETING ISSUES

 

26 Million Koreans Are Smart Phone Users [Korean, OSY]

http://news.donga.com/Economy/Market/3/0108/20120514/46242973/1

Summary: According to Korean telecom companies, total number of smart phone users in Korea was over 26 million as of May 11, which means one every two Koreans were using smart phones.  By the way, total number of wireless phone users in Korea were 52 million.

 

Lotte to Join Premium Coffee Mix Business [Korean, OSY]

http://news.donga.com/Economy/Market/3/0108/20120514/46243159/1

Summary: Lotte Chilsung announced that it would launch a premium coffee mix brand, ¡°Espresso Cantata Stick¡±, in June.  Lotte¡¯s product will be similar in quality to Canu, a leading premium espresso coffee mix by Dongsuh, according to Lotte.

   

 

 

The information in this report was compiled by the Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. The press summaries contained herein do NOT reflect USDA, the U.S. Embassy, or other U.S. government agency official policy or view point. U.S. food exporters can learn more about market opportunities in South Korea by reviewing ATO Seoul¡¯s Exporter Guide and other reports available at www.fas.usda.gov by clicking on ¡°attaché reports¡±.

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Agricultural Trade Office, U.S. Embassy - Seoul
Tel: 82-2-6951-6848 Fax: 82-2-720-7921
Email: atoseoul@state.gov