Livestock product market size in South Korea 2012-2023

In 2023, the estimated market size of farm animal products in South Korea amounted to approximately 38.3 trillion South Korean won. The market size of livestock products slightly increased compared to the previous year and the market size of farm animal products also showed an increasing trend over the last five years. 

Animal farms in South Korea 

In the livestock farming industry, cattle accounted for the largest number of breeding farms in South Korea. This includes all types of cattle, which can be distributed into beef cattle and dairy cattle. Specifically, beef cattle farms were declining over the years, while the overall number of cattle farms were rising. Nevertheless, the net profit of beef cattle slightly increased, after several years of decline. The reason was that despite the recent rise in production costs, the wholesale price of Korean beef soared, resulting in a surge in the price of the meat as well.

The South Korean meat market

 The per capita consumption of all kinds of meat, such as beef, pork, and chicken, continued to increase over the years. This was because both domestic supply and imports were growing every year. However, in the case of retail prices, all three major meat markets developed differently. While the retail price of beef remained constant throughout the year, the pork price was on the rise, and the chicken price was on the decline. Retail prices in the meat market are determined by domestic and foreign supply, as well as demand fluctuations, such as wholesale prices, supply volume, and demand volume, for example.