Korean beef. There was a reason why it was so expensive. "I sold 90,000 won per kilogram at a restaurant. Is it 200,000 won?"

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]
□ Broadcast Date: 11 November 2024 (Mon)
□ Host: Announcer Lee Hyun-woong
□ Cast: Lee Dong-hwal, Chairman of the Korean Beef Fund Management Committee

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Announcer Lee Hyun-woong (hereinafter referred to as Lee Hyun-woong): The season when the whole nation eats Korean beef. From the 30th to the 8th of last month, the event on the day of eating Korean beef from the Sopraise ended successfully. This event is designed to help Korean beef farmers who are suffering from weak wholesale prices and to lower the prices of shopping baskets for consumers. Let's talk about Korean beef this time. Lee Dong-hwal, chairman of the Korean Beef Fund Management Committee, came out to the studio. How are you?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal, Chairman of the Korean Beef Self-help Management Committee (hereinafter referred to as Lee Dong-hwal): Yes. Hello,

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Nice to meet you. You didn't know you were on a visible radio show? It's also being broadcast live on the Internet right now. Can you see the camera in front of you? It's coming out that way. It would be nice if you could look at the camera over there and tell me from time to time. You came out today, and I think some listeners might be unfamiliar with the Korean Beef Fund Management Committee, so it would be good to introduce it briefly first.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: It is a non-profit organization established in 2005 under the Act on the Creation and Operation of Livestock Self-help Fund for the stable development of the Korean beef industry and the rights and interests of Korean beef farmers and consumers to protect the value of Korean beef, the indigenous variety of Korean beef, and to promote Korean beef consumption.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. It's been almost 20 years in 2005, how many people have been with you for 20 years?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: We are a non-profit organization that used to be 150,000 livestock farmers when there were many in the country. It has gradually decreased now, and now about 80,000 farmers are not members of the Korean beef farm, but when they slaughter one meat cow in Korean beef farming, they donate 20,000 won per head as a mandatory amount.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: That's how it works.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: If we set aside about 900,000 won a year, we will raise about 18 billion won and use about 30 billion won a year in government subsidies for promoting Korean beef, controlling supply and demand, and stabilizing supply and demand. There are about 25 members of our management committee and 250 delegates across the country. It is operated in this way.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: It's quite large. Yes. I see. Then did you keep raising cattle and Korean beef?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes. I started in 1983 and have been raising cattle for 40 years this year. I'm still doing it in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: You're doing it in Pohang. Have you been in Pohang since 1983?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes, that's right.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. Have you estimated how many cows you raised?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: I don't know. Every year, when we first started, we started with about 8 and gradually increased in size, and now we raise about 150 animals.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. I see. There is a full-fledged interview about Korean beef today, and we prepared a fun ox quiz. We prepared a time to find out a little more about Korean beef that we didn't know about. I'm going to ask you a quick question, but you have to listen to the ox sign in front of it and say it. You can say O or X. Then I'll give you an O, X quiz first. There is only one type of Korean beef.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: The answer is X.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Korean beef is a livestock that is only found in Korea.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes. It's O.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Spotted calf, the cow in this nursery rhyme is Korean beef.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes. It's O.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: The highest grade of Korean beef is first grade.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: It's X.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: The fat in Korean beef is bad for your health.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: It's X.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: That's it. I'm sure there are people who feel that this is a bit different from what I think. Let's hear the answers one by one. He gave me an X that says that there is only one type of Korean beef.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes. In addition to the regular Korean beef, which is commonly known as bull yellow, Korean beef has arrowroot cattle with black stripes on a dark brown background. There is also a black cow whose whole body is black. Next, there was a white-colored white ball.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Of course, I only thought of the yellow cow, but that's not it. I see. The second Korean beef is O, which is only found in Korea.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Korean beef is a unique breed in Korea, and as various records of Korean beef are included in the literature such as the Three Kingdoms Sagi, we can see that Korean beef has already been with our people since the Gojoseon period before the Three Kingdoms period. In 2008, Korean beef was selected as one of the top 100 national cultural symbols in recognition of its value.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. I thought this question was nonsense, but the hand in the calf, smeared calf, nursery rhyme, held up Hanwoo Da's O. Is there a basis for that?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes. It is a song that adds a song to Park Mok-wol's poem, and the main character is arrowroot, a type of Korean beef.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: That's why you explained it before the spotted calf.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: A cow with a dark brown and black pattern, it was called a zebra in the past.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. The highest grade of the next Korean beef is 1st grade X. Is there anything higher than 1st grade?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: We are now classified into five grades of Korean beef, and the basic grade is 3, so the capacity grade is A, B, and C. The 6th and 7th grades are classified into 5 grades: 3rd grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade, 1st grade, 1st grade, plus and 2 plus. These days, 2 plus is expressed as a marbling index, which increases to 7, 8, and 9 times, and is classified into about 7 grades.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. Then if I say grade 1, is it about medium meat?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: That's right. There are three grades, two grades, one grade, cone, two horns, seven, eight, and nine.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. I think it would be good to refer to it. And you said X that the fat of Korean beef is bad for your health, so is it good for your health? Or is it not bad?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: The fat contained in the meat store contains these abundant substances such as oleic acid, and the flavor comes from the fat in the meat. Next, compared to imported beef, the fat of Korean beef has higher levels of unsaturated fatty acids that do not accumulate when entering the body, so we dare to argue that the fat of Korean beef is not harmful to health at all.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Okay. They said, "We're claiming it." I think I have to say that. The event was held on the day of eating Korean beef. It's a so-called surprise event, and I heard it ended successfully. How was the performance?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: We are consumers of online offline large retailers across the country, including the intention of increasing purchasing power at a reasonable price and promoting a lot of consumption for Korean beef farmers who are in need. Including the largest retailers, we sold 50% off at the usual price, 20% to 30% off, so that better Korean beef could be brought closer to consumers, but many people participated, so we sold a lot of sales and helped promote consumption.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: I see. I know that this event was started to help Korean beef farmers who are affected by the weak wholesale price of Korean beef, but consumers actually think that Korean beef is expensive first. I don't think many people thought it was cheap, but I wonder why the wholesale price and the price that consumers feel are so far apart.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: That may be a complaint from the producer farm, but our production farm has a deficit of about 1.8 million won based on the current price of a castrated cow. Breeding farms produce one calf and sell the calf, with a deficit of about 1.3 million won. So, we produce castrated beef, and we have to raise it for about 1 to 2 months after 30 months of age, so the price of feed is high and the price of meridians is low. If you tell me about the distribution stage, we produce and transport it, slaughter it in slaughterhouses, process it, and stereotype it. When it comes to stereotyping, you have to cut off the bones by parts. We are investigating that there is no problem with the distribution channel process for this case, but the next step is the problem. Since then, it's because of the price of meat supplied to the restaurant, but what's unfortunate is that I wanted to tell you if I had a chance, but the price of meat at a Tucson restaurant in south of Chupungryeong, North Jeolla Province, and North and South Gyeongsang Province can only be around 90,000 won in Daegu, for example.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Is it based on 2 people?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Per kilo. Usually, there are places that cost 100g and 130g for one serving, but the more you come up to the metropolitan area, the more expensive it becomes. Based on the same grade and sirloin in the same area, 90,000 won is 150,000 won. It's 180,000 won since I'm going to Suwon. It's more than double 200,000 won when I'm coming to Seoul. Of course, when I went to the restaurant and asked about the price, the building rent was high and the labor cost was high, and the other thing is that the price of meat includes vegetables and labor costs. So, if I charge the venue fee separately and charge the service fee and labor cost separately, I hope that there will be a company that sells meat in common across the country. So, the Korean Beef Association's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs selected 51 good restaurants last year, including the metropolitan area. So, although it can go up and down by a slight price change, there are also businesses in Seoul that have designated Yeongdeungpo restaurants as good businesses. If you go to that place, you can eat it reasonably and cheaply.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Even though rent and labor costs are similar to other places?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: But since they sell good prices, if we presume that the price cannot be determined by running a certain restaurant, the cost of moving sirloin, which is sold 90,000 won in Daegu, and even considering various costs, can't residents in the Seoul metropolitan area eat it without hearing that it is expensive if they sell about 120,000 won to 30,000 won in Seoul?

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Okay. You mentioned a deficit earlier, but the price of feed is actually going up a lot, right?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Feed prices are significant in Korea, and most of them are placenta, but there are various problems. There are fluctuations depending on the current state of grain production, and there are also areas where transportation costs have risen significantly due to the war, so the proportion of feed prices is very large. Next, as long as we raise cattle nationwide, we can measure less than 10% and those who are in the condition to produce feed can lower the price of feed by 20-30%. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and policy are also planning to lower rice prices by producing domestic surveys and creating a support system. Overall, however, the current local meridians have a deficit of 1.8 million won, and the castration cattle have a deficit of 1.3 million won due to the breeding of cows, but it is a pity that production farmers suffer a deficit and consumers in the metropolitan area eat meat more expensive. We are planning to create many businesses by developing many good businesses and selling them at an appropriate price with Korean beef self-help funds.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Okay. I hope many people enjoy Korean beef more because the gap has narrowed, but on days like this when they get bonuses, they often say, "Let's go eat Korean beef today." But I went to eat Korean beef to enjoy it and it's a problem because it's often a fake Korean beef. Right. Is there a way to distinguish between real and fake Korean beef?

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: There is. We also conduct dielectric tests, and we introduced that Korean beef is a hysteresis system around the world, and the only Korean beef varieties are systematically managed, starting with cow production. So in the midst of this, if some distributors slaughter one cow during the processing process, the history of the one can be traced. When attaching the label in the process of packaging, you can finish one and work on it and finish one when you attach the label machine like this, but since it is over-processed with meat, there are some such phenomena due to errors. Being really dull is very bad.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Okay. Since you're talking about Korean beef while listening to the show, there might be people who think that they should eat Korean beef today or this weekend. I think it would be good if you could introduce what parts and how to eat it so that you can buy more Korean beef.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: I can't tell you all about this broadcast in a short time, but if you come to the website of the Korean Beef Association or our Korean Beef Self-Governing Committee, we have developed many recipes for Korean beef consumption and post them on the website. So it would be nice to see it, and we're also introducing four good businesses every month in a newsletter for consumers from the Korean Beef Self-help Fund and introducing recipes for them. Then, a large part of this dish has been developed as much as in the past. When it comes to Korean beef in the past, it was stew and grilled beef, but many parts were developed, so you can come to our self-help website and see it. There are about 13 minutes where we appointed Korean beef as a promotional ambassador by the Korean Beef Self-Management Committee. They also developed recipes and participated in and developed famous CFs. Hanwoo is nutritionally excellent in all areas, so I ask consumers to use it a lot.

◆ Lee Hyun-woong: Okay. While you're talking, I went to the website and it's very neat and nice to see, and there are various recipes for jangjorim, chop steak, suyuk, and pot rice. I think it would be good to use it a lot. That's all for today. I was with the chairman of the Korean Beef Self-help Management Committee. Thank you.

◇ Lee Dong-hwal: Yes, thank you.