The Agriculture Ministry’s National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service said Wednesday that it confirmed that American beef was mixed with the recently imported Mexican beef so that it was ordered to stop the quarantine and delivery work. The veterinary service said that after it had gone through a third of the total 212 tons, they had discovered that 287 kilograms of U.S beef from the 38 tons of the Mexican beef was shipped by one of Mexican exporters.

Accordingly, the Agriculture Minister plans to cancel the export permission of the Mexican exporter and will send back or destroy all 38 tons of beef. It will open all packages of Mexican beef imports to verify the contents.

An official at the veterinary service said that there is little possibility that American beef has been sold in the Korean market because Mexico suspended the import of U.S beef till March and the identified Mexican exporter exported its beef to Korea for the first time.

However, as about 190 tons of Mexican beef has already been distributed in the market since March, American beef may be included in the Mexican imports. Korea began the importing of Mexican beef this year for the first time. A total of 414 tons of Mexican beef has been brought into Korea.

An official at the Agricultural Ministry said that there was a strong possibility that collusion existed between a Mexican exporter 45 and South Korean importers. The official also said that the ministry would strengthen the management of Mexican exporters and quarantine of imported livestock products to prevent camouflaged import. The Agriculture Ministry imposed a ban on the import of American beef, beef products and other ruminant animals like sheep, goat and deer, after the United States discovered its first case of mad cow disease in the state of Washington last December.

(Park Jong-se, jspark@chosun.com )