South Korea: Poultry and Products Annual
In Marketing Year (MY) 2019 (January – December), Korea’s chicken production is projected to increase about 2.4 percent to 932,000 metric tons (MT) from 910,000 MT in MY 2018, mainly due to the following two reasons: 1) elevated competition for market share caused by increased supply from new slaughtering facilities owned by vertically-integrated chicken companies and 2) a stable rise in demand for chicken, which continues to sell at a cheaper price than other meat (beef and pork). However, the market prices (farm gate and wholesale prices) will not be favorable for producers due to the oversupply of chicken. In 2019, Korea’s chicken imports are projected to increase three percent to 145,000 MT from 140,000 MT in 2018 due to a continued increase in demand for processed chicken products which are cheaper imported than domestically produced.
