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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