Australia had been the leading exporter of beef to Korea since 2004.

New Zealand came in third at 18,786 tons last year, down 16.5 percent from the previous year, and Canada came in fourth at 5,200 tons, up 15.6 percent.

The sharp rise in US beef imports is attributed to the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States that took effect in 2012.

US beef had been the most popular foreign beef in Korea up until 2003, after the country opened its beef market to foreign countries two years earlier.

The Seoul government, however, banned imports of US beef in 2003 after a mad cow disease outbreak was reported in the North American country.

As mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathysubsided in the US, Korea resumed imports of boneless meat from US cattle aged less than 30 months in 2008.

BSE is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy and fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that may be passed to humans who eat infected flesh.

With the Korea-US trade agreement that went into effect in March 2012, US beef imports have continued to rise on the back of lower tariffs and low prices compared with Korean beef products.(Yonhap)