South Korea: Poultry and Products Annual
Chicken production is expected to increase 5.1 percent to 746,000 MT in 2014 and to 753,000 MT in 2015 due to greater broiler chick production and higher parental stock inventory as a result of expected higher demand from international sporting events and the entry of new producers into the slaughtering sector. However, an oversupply has resulted and farm gate and wholesale prices have declined accordingly at 11.5 and 7.9 percent respectively. Meanwhile, imports of frozen chicken are expected to increase slightly in 2015 to 134,00 MT as U.S. bone-in chicken continues to benefit from tariff reductions under the KORUS FTA and Brazilian imports may be diverted to Russia due to its ban on agricultural imports from Western countries including the United States. As well, imports of chicken during the first six months of 2014 increased by 10 percent to 68,241 MT.
