Today's Date:   Tuesday February 05, 2013

1. LIVESTOCK ISSUES

Australian beef expands presence in S. Korean market in 2012[English, BYY]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2013/02/05/99/0502000000AEN20130205002300320F.HTML

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- Australian beef saw its market share in South Korea exceed the 50-percent mark last year, while American beef lost part of its popularity amid an overall decline in meat imports, data showed Tuesday. Australian beef imports reached 134,927 tons last year, accounting for 52.2 percent of South Korea's imported beef market. In 2011, Australian beef's market share fell to 49.6 percent in South Korea as U.S. beef regained its popularity, according to the data. The data also showed South Korea's imports of U.S. beef reached 95,082 tons in 2012, garnering 36 percent of the local beef import market. The comparable figure for American beef was 37.5 percent for 2011.

2. MARKETING ISSUES

63,000 Chinese Tourists to Visit S. Korea during the Coming Lunar New Year’s Day Season [Korean, OSY]

http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2013020487331

Summary: According to the Korea Tourism Office, over 63,000 Chinese tourists are likely to visit Korea during the coming Lunar New Year’s Day season, February 9 to 15.  The number of Chinese tourists visiting Korea during the Lunar New Year’s Day season this year would be up 25 percent from last year’s.  Chinese tourists have become leading shoppers of Korean department stores and duty free boutique shops and local retailers have laid out various promotion tools to make the most of this large scale Chinese delegation over the next two weeks.