I still love Korean food. This powerhouse cuisine, like K-pop’s girl- and boy-bands in the music world, is part of the global Korean cultural tidal wave called Hallyu. The flavours of Korean have become the darling child of competitive and restaurant chefs alike, and it’s easy to understand why. Nutty, salty, acidic, sweet and fermented, Korean food is streamlined and spicy, loaded with umami, the near-mystical savoury fifth flavour sense.

To introduce your palate to Korean tastes, here’s a little scouting trip through its basic flavours and ingredients. Three jang, or base sauces, made from meju (fermented soy blocks), underpin Korean flavours in marinades, sauces, dipping sauces, stews and soups:

• Doenjang (fermented cooked soybean paste), very salty and usually wheat-free, is used to season vegetables and add zap to soups and sauces.

• Ganjang (soy sauce) is traditionally wheat-free and mild in a version called Joseon ganjang, used for seasoning soups and vegetables, but a version called yanyo ganjang that contains wheat is funkier, often used in braising meats.

• Gochujang is a thick, spicy-salty-sweet reddish-brown paste made from powdered red chili powder, ground glutinous rice, cooked and fermented soybeans, and salt. This paste serves as a Korean mother sauce, becoming ssamjang, with the simple additions of vinegar, sesame oil, chopped green onions and doenjang. Ssamjang (“wrapped thick sauce”) is traditionally used to literally wrap around grilled meats served with flatbread, red lettuce leaves and perilla, anise-flavoured leaves similar to Japanese shiso.

Gajeun yangnyeom (“everything seasonings”) are the other essentials. They include toasted sesame seeds and roasted sesame seed oil, crushed garlic, green onions, gochugaru (crushed chili powder), shoju (distilled rice alcohol), dried seaweed, and sweet/acid ingredients such as plum syrup and rice vinegar.

Jeot refers to the array of salted, fermented and dried seafoods that act as side dishes, condiments, and seasonings in this coastal cuisine. They include salted shrimp, dried anchovies, sand lance fish sauce and liquid anchovy sauce (both similar to Thai and Vietnamese fish sauce), salted squid and octopus, and liquids and pastes made from oysters, clams and fish roe.

Plug in your earbuds, find some K-pop, then dance, or run, or groove to the move. When you’re done, hit the kitchen. First we eat, then we work our way around the Asian flavour world.

Yangnyeom chicken wings

This spicy dish contains the elementals of Korean seasoning. It is quick and delicious, ideal for Sunday supper, Tuesday lunch or a shareable snack for the hockey game. Traditionalists dredge the wings in flour or a thin batter and deep-fry them, but I prefer to use my air fryer or oven to roast them. This sauce is equally great on grilled beef, pork, salmon or grilled vegetables. Add a bowl of rice and some roasted cabbage to level up to supper.

Serves 2-4.

• 2 lb. chicken wings, separated at the joints
• 2 Tbsp. sunflower oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup gochujang
• the juice of ½ lemon or rice vinegar to taste
• 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 Tbsp. minced ginger root
• ¼ cup light soy sauce
• ¼ cup roasted sesame seed oil
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish
• minced green onions or cilantro for garnish

Preheat oven or air fryer to 400 F. Line a baking sheet or air fryer basket with parchment paper. Toss the wings with oil, salt and pepper, then arrange in a single layer on the tray or in the basket. Cook until tender and crisp, turning once, about 20 minutes.

While the chicken roasts, combine all remaining ingredients except the garnishes. Stir the resulting sauce, thin with a bit of water if it’s too thick, and transfer to a medium heat-proof bowl.

Transfer the cooked chicken to the bowl, toss well, and arrange on a platter. Drizzle with remaining sauce, and top with sesame seeds and minced green onions or cilantro. Serve hot.

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WHY IT MATTERS: Past outbreaks of African swine fever have devastated hog barns in Korea, China and other nations.

Some 1,423 pigs were culled due to the outbreak at a farm in Dangjin, South Chungcheong province, and authorities were closely monitoring for further infections at around 140 related farms, South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry had also issued a 48-hour “standstill” order for all pig farms and other livestock facilities in the country to curb the risk of further spread.

It was the sixth isolated outbreak of ASF in South Korea this year, but the first time in South Chungcheong, which is the largest pig farm region in the country and an area that had not seen a previous outbreak, the ministry said.

The ministry ordered all resources available to be mobilized to prevent the spread of ASF.

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But apple farmers, who account for about a third of the roughly 14,000 households in the sleepy rural area, worry that their way of life could be under threat from an influx of cheap U.S. imports.

Fanning concerns, South Korea’s trade minister suggested last week that Seoul could make concessions on some agricultural imports, although he said sensitive items should be protected, as part of any deal to eliminate or reduce punishing U.S. tariffs on cars, steel and other key exports.

‘We can’t compete with them’

“U.S. apples are very cheap. We can’t compete with them,” said Shim Chun-taek, a third-generation farmer who has been growing apples for two decades.

He now fears South Korean farmers risk being sacrificed to appease the U.S. and support the country’s manufacturing sector.

The United States has long called for better market access for its farm products from beef to apples and potatoes. U.S. President Donald Trump in April slammed steep tariffs on rice in South Korea and Japan.

South Korea has taken steps to open its market and is now the top buyer of U.S. beef and the sixth-biggest destination for U.S. agricultural exports overall.

Still, Washington has complained about persistent non-tariff barriers.

South Korea’s quarantine agency is still reviewing U.S. market access requests for apples more than 30 years after they were filed, sparking calls by Washington to expedite the approval process for a range of fruits and potatoes.

Surging prices

Any opening up of the sector would increase pressure on apple farmers already wrestling with a host of problems, from climate change to an ageing population and wildfires, which have led to rising costs, smaller harvests, and higher prices.

Bank of Korea governor Rhee Chang-yong last year said runaway prices of apples and other farm goods were contributing to inflation and that there was a need to consider more imports.

The central bank noted South Korea’s grocery prices were higher than the average for OECD countries, with apple prices nearly three times higher than the OECD average.

“I think it is difficult to justify absolute protection to certain agriculture sectors simply because of its high sensitivity,” said Choi Seok-young, a former chief negotiator for the Korea-U.S. free trade deal.

It was hard to view the delayed quarantine process as “rational based on science and international norms,” added Choi, who is now a senior adviser for law firm Lee & Ko.

Agriculture a trade sticking point

Agriculture has emerged as one of the sticking points in U.S. trade talks with South Korea and Japan, after countries such as Indonesia and Britain agreed to allow more agricultural imports from the U.S. in recent trade deals.

Seoul has long restricted shipments of U.S. beef from cattle older than 30 months. Massive protests from South Koreans worried about safety due to mad cow disease followed a 2008 agreement with the United States to lift the restrictions.

Shim, 48, who wakes at 3 a.m. every morning to work on his orchards, said it would be impossible to find alternative crops to grow in the mountainous area.

The tariff talks have already fuelled protests from farmers’ groups. There could be more to come.

“We oppose the imports of apples no matter what,” Youn Kyung-hee, mayor of Cheongsong county, told Reuters, adding that people will not “sit still” if Seoul opens up the market.

— Additional reporting by Daewoung Kim and Jihoon Lee in Seoul

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About a month ago, in 2025, we made our second voyage to South Korea and got another great opportunity to revisit her family’s farm.

To appreciate their farm, as well as the special beef industry in Korea, we should compare the typical Korean palate against our own eating habits in Canada. For example, Canadians consume about 30 kg of beef and eat less than eight kg of fish and seafood on an annual basis. Koreans, on the other hand, consume over 60 kg of fish and seafood and about 15 kg of beef. Furthermore, a Korean plate of beef rarely bears a steak as we know it, but often displays stewed heart, tripe, chitlins, oxtail and other offal.

Similarly, Canada slaughters about two million cattle per year, while Koreans slaughter nearly 900,000 Hanwoo beef feeders, which originate in their country. Plus, I can attest that from Seoul to Naju City (pop. 120,000), I did not see any open-air feedlots, which are a common sight in Western Canada. Rather, most in Korea are like that of my girlfriend’s uncle and aunt — Sang June Kim and Hee Jong’s operation — in the form of an open-roof and dairy-like barn with two longitudinal rows of cattle pens.

I reported last year that they bought 170 Hanwoo feeder steers at eight to nine months of age, weighing between 300 and 350 kg. Their plan was to raise and market these calves to 1,000 kg at 24 months of age.

Upon our second visit, most of these calves have been sold. Now 150 five- to six-month-old Hanwoo heifers weighing about 250 kg have been trucked in. They will be raised until they are marketed at 750 kg, which I am assuming is about their slaughter weight.

According to Sang June, using my girlfriend as an interpreter, they made a handsome profit on last year’s steers. Given that a new group of feeder steers would be an unprecedentedly high input cost and would have resulted in razor-thin profit, he penciled it out and decided to buy light-weight Hanwoo heifers.

Sang June acknowledged heifers may gain less per day than comparable steers, but should have better overall feed efficiencies for an attractive financial return.

On the farm with the steers, he cut and loaded plastic-wrapped bales (500 to 600 kg per bale) of complete diet (forage plus concentrate) in a small TMR mixer, which was mounted on a small truck and then equally unloaded in front of the steers.

Now, Sang June lays only chopped hay (wrapped 500-kg bales imported from Australia) in front of the heifers and in a more precise manner feeds a complete grain ration through individual self-drop feeders on the other side of the heifer pens.

It is my further understanding that this heifer concentrate is made up of rolled corn, rolled soybeans, ground barley and a mineral-vitamin pack.

The amount of this concentrate diet is distributed on a weight-per-head basis and then increased respectively as these animals grow heavier. As a footnote: no implants are used on this operation.

Another change Sang June made this year is that all growing heifers are still housed to about three to five animals per pen, but a thick layer of clean rice hulls lines each pen. In comparison, last year’s steers laid on their own manure.

According to Sang June, his goal of continuous improvement is to keep all animals as clean and comfortable as possible, particularly during the autumn rainy season. He believes it contributes to good health and better weight gains.

For me, such a second guided tour of this beautiful operation was totally unexpected. I was thrilled to learn about the significant improvements made to it in less than one year’s time. I encourage all readers to look back at my Grainews article from last spring to read or re-read about my first excellent visit. Both visits certainly made me appreciate ever more of the beef industry in another country and here at home. Above all I want to thank Sang June and Hee Jong again for their great hospitality in welcoming us to their farm and home.

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In short order, my girlfriend and I took a two-week vacation to South Korea and had a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit a typical Korean beef finisher operation.

Before I get started on our visit, let me put in perspective some important numbers comparing South Korea to Manitoba and Canada. The population of South Korea is 52 million people living in one-third of a total land mass of about 100,000 square kilometres (two-thirds is mountains), compared to 1.4 million Manitobans living within 650,000 sq. km (including 100,000 lakes).

South Korean agriculture encompasses about 3.25 million acres, while Manitoba tills about 17 million acres, both for a variety of crops. For example, half of the arable land in South Korea is set aside for rice; the rest seems to be pear farms, which produce 185,000 tonnes per year of Asian pears.

On the livestock side, Canada slaughters about two million cattle per annum, while Koreans slaughter nearly 900,000 Hanwoo beef steers, which originate in this country.

READ MORE: Canada struggles in Korean beef market

With such information, we are now ready for our visit to a traditional Hanwoo beef finishing operation located right outside Naju City (population 120,000) in the country’s southwest.

It so happens the owners are my girlfriend’s uncle and aunt: Sang June Kim and his wife, Hee Jong. They bring in about 170 Hanwoo-steer calves at about eight to nine months of age and 300-350 kg. The calves are raised and marketed at 1,000 kg at 24 months of age. No hormonal implants are used on this operation.

All animals are housed in pens with an open-roof barn, which reminds me of a U.S. dairy barn. There are three or four steers per pen with plenty of living and bunk space. No straw bedding is provided.

Feeding is once a day at 3:30 p.m., sharp. Sang June first blows the bunks absolutely clean of residual feed with a leaf blower. He then cuts and loads plastic-wrapped bales (each 500-600 kg) of complete diet (forage plus concentrate) in a small TMR mixer, mounted on a small truck. I calculate that he feeds seven to eight bales per afternoon.

With the same truck, Sang June can unload the feed along the feed bunk in a very precise manner. Subsequently, I took up a handful of diet — a grower-type diet, containing about 50 per cent rice straw and 50 per cent concentrate. The concentrate portion was rolled corn, rolled soybeans and ground barley.

I also understand from Sang June that the rice-forage portion is locally purchased from a feed mill, which combines it with grains, proteins and a mineral-vitamin pack imported from Australia. Though I didn’t confirm it, I would assume these cattle are fed a higher concentrate ration as they move into the latter finishing stages of growth to market.

Consequently, I calculate their overall growing-finishing average daily gains (ADG) to about 1.5 kg (3.2 lbs.) per head per day. Comparably, our Canadian finishers are slaughtered at about 650–700 kg at about 18 months of age, yielding comparable ADGs.

Hanwoo carcass yields are also similar to those recorded in Canada, which are about 60-63 per cent. Hanwoo cattle, though, are raised to unaccustomed hefty weights and their inherent breed meat quality differs substantially from our typical Angus- or Hereford- terminal cross.

For example, a Hanwoo ribeye contains about 40-50 per cent fat compared to a Canadian cut of marbled 20-25 per cent fat. It just so happened that I took a snapshot of a few Hanwoo meat slices sold at the local Korean store in Nagu City. It sold for about C$16 per 100 grams!

In the end, this excellent tour in itself was totally unexpected. That’s because I didn’t know my girlfriend had an uncle and aunt who raised beef in the first place. Plus, it taught me that high-quality beef is raised in other countries with both different and familiar feedstuffs. And saving the best for last: I want to thank Sang June and Hee Jong for their great hospitality in welcoming us to their farm and home.

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Canadian agriculture and food safety officials announced Aug. 10 that talks with Seoul on import rules and certifications had concluded to allow registered Canadian cherry packers to export to Korea effective Aug. 1.

Up until Aug. 1, no Canadian fresh cherries could be exported to South Korea, as negotiations for phytosanitary conditions had not yet been completed, ag officials said via email.

However, they added, the bilateral Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement in place since 2015 included an agreed-upon tariff reduction schedule for fresh cherries, “negotiated with the expectation that Canadian industry would eventually have access to the market.”

That means the tariff rate on exports of Canadian cherries to South Korea, which otherwise would have been 24 per cent, will be just 4.8 per cent this year, with duty-free access already scheduled for Jan. 1, 2024, officials said.

Canada’s cherries didn’t yet have access to the Korean market when CKFTA talks were underway but “it was a priority for the Canadian government and industry stakeholders to secure a tariff phase-out with a view to eventual access,” AAFC officials said, noting that negotiating access for any ag commodity is “a lengthy process that can take several years to be achieved.”

South Korea’s annual imports of fresh cherries from other countries were valued at over $208 million in 2021, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Aug. 10.

Canada’s annual cherry exports to other countries, meanwhile, were valued at $78 million in 2021, AAFC said.

And, “as the region in North America with the latest-growing cherries, British Columbia exporters have a competitive advantage when the cherries are ready to go to market in August and September.”

Given recent expansions in acres and production volume and rising global demand, sweet cherries have already become Canada’s second-largest exported fruit crop, behind blueberries, AAFC said, and the opening of the Korean market marks “a timely opportunity for the Canadian cherry industry to develop new business.”

“Our growers and industry partners look forward to building long-lasting relationships with Korean customers and cannot wait to see cherries branded with the maple leaf in stores across South Korea,” B.C. Cherry Association president Sukhpaul Bal said in the government’s release Aug. 10. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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South Korea, the fourth-largest beef importer in the world, is seeking more information about the case before lifting its suspension, the agency’s spokesman Patrick Girard said.

No other countries have told Canada, the eighth-largest beef exporter, that they are considering trade action, Girard said.

Canada on Thursday confirmed the BSE case in an 8-1/2-year-old beef cow in central Alberta, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said Monday.

The cow was euthanized on the farm and did not enter the food or animal feed chain, Girard said.

BSE is a fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle. Canada’s latest case is atypical — meaning that it is a form of BSE that can occur naturally in older cattle — as opposed to classical BSE, caused by an animal eating contaminated feed.

The first confirmed Canadian case of BSE — a classical form — was detected in 2003, resulting in some 40 export markets closing. Many have long since reopened.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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The new case occurred at a pig farm with about 1,800 pigs in the city of Gimpo, nearly 14 km south of the city of Paju where the country’s first case was confirmed on Sept. 17, the ministry of agriculture, food and rural affairs said in a statement.

Another case was confirmed at a pig farm with around 2,300 pigs in Paju on Tuesday, the ministry said.

A total of four cases have been confirmed since the first outbreak of African swine fever on Sept. 17.

Since the first outbreak, over 15,000 pigs had been culled, according to agriculture ministry data, 0.1 per cent of the country’s pig population of more than 12 million pigs.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has raised the country’s animal disease alert level to the highest following the outbreak and ramped up disinfection measures to try to keep the virus spreading further.

African swine fever is highly contagious among pigs and nearly 100 per cent fatal, but does not affect humans. It has spread across China and infected herds in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jane Chung; additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin.

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South Korea suspended sales of Canadian wheat last week after Canada announced the discovery in mid-2017 of an unapproved genetically modified (GM) variety of the grain growing along an access road in southern Alberta.

“As we have found no unapproved GM wheat in imports of wheat and flour Canada, we have lifted the temporary sales suspension of Canadian products,” the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a statement.

The food ministry added it would continue to test shipments of Canadian wheat and flour from Canada.

Industry group Cereals Canada hailed the Korean government’s announcement later Tuesday, also thanking the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canadian Grain Commission for their “strong technical work.”

The Canadian industry and government “will continue to work with Japan as they complete their due diligence,” the group said. Japan on June 15 announced a suspension of imports similar to Korea’s, but has not yet lifted its ban.

The Alberta Wheat Commission, in a separate release Tuesday, said the “quick resolution of this issue verified the integrity of the Canadian science-based regulatory and quality control systems” under the CGC and CFIA.

“This resolution is a critical step forward in providing assurance to Canadian wheat customers that Canada does not produce or ship genetically modified wheat,” AWC chairman Kevin Bender said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jane Chung. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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“We will only allow sale of wheat products that are confirmed not to contain unapproved genetically modified wheat,” South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a statement on Monday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on June 14 the grain containing a genetically modified trait, developed by Monsanto to tolerate its Roundup herbicide, was found after plants along an access road survived spraying.

Following the announcement of the GM wheat discovery, Japan’s farm ministry last week suspended its tenders and sales of wheat from Canada.

“The impact of suspending the sale of Canadian wheat and flour would be limited because the share of Canadian wheat imports is small,” said a source from CJ Cheiljedang Corp., one of South Korea’s major wheat importers and flour millers.

Canada is one of the world’s largest wheat exporters and is South Korea’s No. 3 wheat supplier, after the U.S. and Australia.

In 2017, South Korea imported 226,355 tonnes of wheat from Canada, accounting for 9.2 per cent of the country’s total wheat imports, according to food ministry data.

As of June 15, South Korea had taken 89,683 tonnes of Canadian wheat for this year, making up 8.3 percent of the country’s total wheat imports.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jane Chung.

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