“Finest Veal Cuisine Is Coming.”

A promotional catchline by a ritzy hotel restaurant? No, that was actually the title of a press release issued by the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday.

Enhancing the consumption of calve dishes is one of the ideas that the ministry has come up with to deal with livestock farmers frustrated by falling cattle prices.

The ministry said it will buy 1,000 head of six-month-old calves from cattle producers and sell the meat in the market in order to “offer consumers chances to experience new culinary culture by pioneering a new market for veal, create new demands for beef, and help stabilize beef prices by reducing supply.”

Last week, police stopped angry farmers who tried to protest the drop in cattle prices by taking 2,000 cows to the presidential Blue House in Seoul. Some farmers say they’ve been forced to let animals starve to death rather than pay to feed them and take a loss in the final sale.

Indeed, prices for two-month-old calves plummeted to 165,000 won in December 2011 from 607,000 won a year ago, according to the ministry. Meanwhile feed prices have gone up 17% as of November 2011 from a year ago.

The main problem is oversupply, said Lee Hyang-woo, a livestock researcher at the state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute.

“We have warned about this since 2009 when people suddenly jumped into this industry because prices were very good at that time,” he said. “Some people blame middlemen for taking too much profits but that’s only part of the problems.”

In 2008, a groundless rumor swept through the country that U.S. imported beef causes mad cow disease, which boosted demands for local beef. And the government’s decision at the time to require restaurant owners to mark the origin of beef played a role by giving farmers the impression that Korea-branded beef would do better with consumers.(2012-1-11)

As for other measures to balance supply and demand, the ministry said it would step up the efforts to slaughter 100,000 head of cattle, which the government started in June last year to gradually reduce the total cattle number to 2.5 million from the current 2.9 million. Also it’s considering buying local beef for the military, replacing imported pork and beef.

But veal? Most Koreans are not familiar with veal. Last year, South Korea imported just 200 tons of veal – only 0.08% of the total 289,000 tons of beef imports.

One netizen wrote on his Twitter yesterday, “What is the government’s job? To fix the situation where we can’t eat cheap beef while cattle prices are going down? Or to appear on TV news to promote food made from young cattle?”2012-1-11)