Korea was internationally recognized as a "controlled risk" country for bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease by the world organization for animal health (OIE). Korea is now in the same level as 33 other countries in the world such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on Thursday Korea and Panama were given "controlled risk" status in the general session of the OIE in Paris on Tuesday.

The Scientific Commission for Animal Diseases at the OIE had made the decision in February based on documents submitted by the Korean government. Some 175 OIE member countries unanimously approved it in the general session. Before, Korea was in the group of "undetermined" countries because the disease control system was not up to the international standards.

With the resumption of U.S. beef imports, the government has worked hard to obtain the controlled risk status. Since nationwide mass protests against the import of U.S. beef continued for months, the government reinforced preventative measures against BSE by introducing regulations to specify the place of origin of beef and to track the history of the animals.

Stock farmers meanwhile worked hard to enhance quality of beef.  With growing trust in Korean beef, the beef industry here generated over W1 trillion (US$1=W1,222) of profit from July 2008 until the end of last year. Korean beef took up 47.6 percent or 174,000 tons of the total amount of beef consumed in 2008, but saw its share increase to 50 percent in 2009. Consumption of U.S. beef decreased by 5.6 percent during the same time span from 53,000 tons to 50,000 tons. The acquisition of controlled risk status bodes well for the future of Korean beef exports.