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South Korean consumers have mixed feelings over a government decision to halt imports of German pork and poultry products. High levels of dioxin were found in the meat.
Opinions were divided in South Korea on Sunday after the government's temporary suspension of importing pork and poultry products from Germany.
Last week South Korea halted imports of German pork and poultry products after high-levels of dioxin were discovered in German eggs and animal feed by German health officials. No contaminated meat has been found in South Korea so far.
One shop owner says the import suspension could hurt businesses.
[Do Hyon-seung, Shop Owner]:
"It's hard to sell domestic pork due to foot-and-mouth disease. Then, our government banned importing German pork, which gives shoppers a bad image of pork. It was an unreasonable decision to suspend pork imports."
Others say the government should protect the public.
[Hong Hyon-gak, Consumer]:
"If they import pork contaminated by dioxin, it is not good. But it has not been confirmed whether [German] pork contain dioxin or not. So the government should make it clear and make a quick and correct judgment."
[Jung Choo-jo, Consumer]:
"I heard dioxin was discovered [in eggs and animal feed] in Germany. Our government should take measures against it [importing pork]. Health is important to everybody. So the government should take measures to protect our health."
The South Korean government says the ban is a (QUOTE) "precautionary" measure, as Germany's imported livestock products in South Korea were not found to be contaminated. It also decided to overhaul the current reserve on quarantine.
South Korea has been suffering from outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu.
The outbreaks have led prices of beef and pork to climb in South Korea, a major importer of beef, pork and chicken. It might lead to more imports of beef from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
