Korea Beef Import Market
Frozen and chilled beef cuts entering South Korea — origin share, supplier concentration and month-by-month volume.
Updated Aug 2026 · from official Korean import declarations
- Korea logged 18,905 beef import declarations in the last six months, up 67% on the six months before.
- Australia is the largest origin with 61.4% of all shipments (21,343).
- United States is growing fastest among established origins — up 11% over the last three months against the three before.
- Canada is losing ground, down 45% over the same window.
- 2 overseas suppliers shipped beef to Korea for the first time in the last three months.
- Aug 2026 shipments were down 27% on the month before.
Monthly shipments — beef
the 6 before
Each declaration is one customs filing, not one container — a useful proxy for how often a market is being served rather than for tonnage.
Where it comes from
Origin share and momentum
| Origin | Shipments | Share | 3m vs prior 3m |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 21,343 | 61.4% | ▲ 22% |
| United States | 11,144 | 32.1% | ▲ 11% |
| New Zealand | 1,511 | 4.3% | ▼ 30% |
| Canada | 351 | 1.0% | ▼ 45% |
| Mexico | 297 | 0.9% | ▲ 2% |
| Denmark | 43 | 0.1% | — |
| Ireland | 34 | 0.1% | — |
| Chile | 29 | 0.1% | — |
| Netherlands | 10 | 0.0% | — |
| Uruguay | 3 | 0.0% | — |
Growth is suppressed where the earlier window holds fewer than 20 shipments — a move from three to nine is not a trend.
Top suppliers to Korea
| # | Overseas manufacturer | Ships |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JBS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD | 9,677 |
| 2 | Cargill Meat Solutions | 2,392 |
| 3 | SWIFT BEEF COMPANY | 2,107 |
| 4 | KILCOY PASTORAL COMPANY LIMITED | 1,579 |
| 5 | Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. | 1,399 |
| 6 | TEYS AUSTRALIA MEAT GROUP PTY LTD | 1,293 |
| 7 | Swift Beef Company | 1,092 |
| 8 | TEYS AUSTRALIA BEENLEIGH PTY LTD | 894 |
| 9 | Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation | 871 |
| 10 | AUSTRALIAN MEAT GROUP PTY LTD | 740 |
- 1Pawuziv Rici Kem Cag3,498
- 2Vodemeba Rico Sad Joh2,813
- 3Gejejuk Wida Gapi Ziv1,601
- 4Bidiwo Puquj Tiv Toc1,564
- 5Qupiso Jiwocinotovi Mab Neg1,213
- 6Tipipawa Manu Qes Cef1,121
- 7Pujeqes Lilafiviq Nuf Tej1,097
324 Korean companies import beef.
This report does not name them.
KoreanImportData tracks every one of them — who they buy from, which origins they switched to, how often they ship and when they last imported. Search the full register by product, company or country, in English.
Every account starts free with five lookups — no card required.
These twelve are the biggest categories, not the only ones. The register covers every food, beverage, nutraceutical and packaging item type Korea imports.
Request a custom reportMethod and coverage
Figures are counts of individual import declarations lodged with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, covering Jul 2025 to Aug 2026. This report covers the official item types Beef (frozen, boneless cuts), Beef (frozen, bone-in cuts), Beef (chilled, boneless cuts), Beef (chilled, bone-in cut, beef cuts/carcass) — matched on the declared item type only, never on product-name text, so unrelated goods cannot be pulled in by a keyword.
Origin is the declared country of manufacture, not the country the goods were shipped from, which can differ where a distributor re-exports.
Company and product names are translated or transliterated from the official Korean record and may be imperfect; the Korean record is authoritative. One manufacturer can appear under more than one plant or spelling.
The register is reloaded monthly and this page is rebuilt with it. Figures here will differ from a report you read last month, by design.