6/20/2007 10:21:00 AM Another U.S. beef shipment mistakenly exported to South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Another shipment of U.S. beef violated South Korean import rules, a South Korean official said Tuesday, less than two weeks after Seoul lifted a brief ban on American beef imposed because of two similar cases. But at least one of the U.S. companies that handled the shipment said Tuesday the only problem with the beef was an incorrect code on two boxes.
Seoul reopened its market to American beef last year following a three-year ban due to mad cow fears.
Only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months old, which are considered less at risk from the disease, are accepted.
Beef meant for the U.S. domestic market, which may contain certain kinds of bone or spinal cord material, cannot be exported to South Korea.
Four boxes of beef, weighing about 287 pounds, were mistakenly sent to South Korea as samples on June 2, although they were meant for domestic consumption, said Kim Do-soon, an official with South Korea's Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.
The U.S. Agriculture Department informed Seoul of the latest mistaken shipment, Kim said.
Two U.S. meat plants, run by Tyson Foods Inc., processed the beef and have been suspended from handling meat bound for South Korea, the official said.
A spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson, Gary Mickelson, said that, "contrary to South Korean news reports, Tyson Foods did not ship the beef in question."
"We produced it for domestic sale and consumption," he said Tuesday. "The product was sold by Tyson Foods to a Minnesota company, which resold the product to Iowa-based Midamar Corp.
"Midamar mistakenly exported the beef to South Korea several weeks ago without our knowledge, involvement or permission," he said. "We're once again working through USDA in hopes of quickly resolving this problem."
Mickelson would not say which two plants were involved. The company has several facilities in Nebraska.
A spokesman for Midamar Corp. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said his company did not send the four boxes to South Korea.
Darrin O'Brien, who works in export sales for Midamar, said they were sent to a South Korean company in California, which he said he would not identify. He also said he didn't know what that company had done with the samples.
Tyson produced the product that was acquired by the Minnesota distributor, where it was specifically identified as samples for Korea, O'Brien said Tuesday.
The Minnesota company was J&B Group of St. Michael, Minn., Mickelson said. A call seeking comment from J&B executives was not immediately returned.
Two of the four cases were marked with the right product code to earmark them for South Korean shipment, O'Brien said, but two bore the wrong code.
The beef itself didn't violate any of South Korea's product specifications, he said.
"Age was fine - everything was fine - except the product code was not right in only two cases," he said.
South Korea slapped a de facto ban on U.S. beef imports earlier this month after two shipments meant for U.S. consumption arrived in late May.
The ban was lifted days later after Washington assured Seoul that the two shipments were mistakenly exported.
Tyson also was linked to the earlier banned shipment and also said it was not responsible because it sold the product to a third-party company - identified by U.S. officials as Am-Mex International - which shipped it abroad.
South Korea was the third-largest foreign market for American beef, after Japan and Mexico, before it banned U.S. beef imports.
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Associated Press Writer Nelson Lampe in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.
