[Anchor]
Gyeonggi Province has held a competition to select the highest-quality Hanwoo (Korean beef). Forty-eight farms across the province participated, and the beef that won the grand prize was sold at the highest price during an on-site auction.
Reporter Choi Ho-won visited the scene.
[Reporter]
Slaughtered Hanwoo beef cuts move along the rail of a refrigerated facility into the auction hall.
The cross-sections of the brisket are cut open to allow buyers to check the marbling, or intramuscular fat content.
While the highest meat quality grade, 1++, is typically auctioned at around 26,000 won per kilogram, the unit price changes dramatically when the grand prize winner of this year's Gyeonggi Hanwoo Premium Meat Evaluation Competition appears.
[Auctioneer: Starting at 47,000 won, we will proceed with a knockout format.]
The auction price skyrockets in an instant.
[The final bid was clinched at 67,000 won (per kilogram).]
The final winning bid reached 2.5 times the regular price.
The grand prize-winning Hanwoo was raised with care for 29 months by a farm in the Yangpyeong region, recording a post-slaughter weight of 534 kg.
[Park Se-min / Grand Prize Winner, Gyeonggi Hanwoo Premium Meat Competition: First of all, I think the most important thing was creating an environment where the cattle could eat well and rest well, so I focused on that above all else.]
Meanwhile, the excellence award went to a farm in the Icheon region, alongside five encouragement awards and one Cheongchunyechan Award given to a young farmer.
[Kim Dae-young / Head of Gyeonggi Branch Research Office, Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation: We focused our evaluation on how evenly the marbling is distributed, and considering the characteristics of the meat quality, how high the uniformity and completion of the quality are.]
Since Yongin won the grand prize at the inaugural competition in 2015, followed by Anseong, Icheon, and Yangju, Yangpyeong has produced this year's grand prize winner, indicating that know-how in raising premium meat is spreading widely.
[Chae Hyun-seok / Head of Livestock Distribution Team, Gyeonggi Province: The winning farms undoubtedly take great pride, and the number of participating farms continues to grow.]
Gyeonggi Province plans to hold the Gyeonggi Livestock Promotion Contest at Imjingak in Paju on October 24 and 25, where it will also hold the awards ceremony for the premium meat evaluation competition, alongside events such as a grill master session where experts grill meat for visitors.
(Video by: Jang Woon-seok)
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