Police have busted a ring that was distributing some 33,000 cases of imported beer that was delivered to U.S. military installations [Yonhap News, Korean] but later slated for disposal after its expiration date passed.
Seoul police announced Sunday it had arrested two people, including a Mr. Yu, who was in charge of waste disposal for USFK’s exchange service (AAFES, I’ll assume), on charges of selling USFK beer whose shelf life had expired by some six months to local entertainment establishments. They also booked without detention 12 others, including a USFK exchange employee by the name of Baek, and are looking for four others who have fled.
According to police, the ring had delivered some 33,000 cases (225 tons) of old beer to local food importers between October 2005 and recently, making some 2.2 billion won in the process. The crew forged documents making it seem as if they left the beer with unlicensed waste disposal firm S, when in fact they took the beer and sold it through food importers in Namdaemun Market in Seoul, the International Market in Busan and other places.
From there, the beer was sold to liquor shops, karaoke clubs and beachside vendors. Meanwhile, by selling beer that was supposed to be destroyed, the government lost out on an estimated 670 million won in taxes.
Police are concerned of the possible health effects. The USFK exchange considered the beer potentially harmful when it designated it beyond shelf-life, and there have been many complaints recently of people falling ill with nausea and/or diarrhea after they drank old beer. According to Korea Consumer Protection Board statistics, between January 2005 and September 2006, there have been some 10 cases of nausea and diarrhea from old beer, 52 cases of beer having gone bad and 12 cases of beer actually exploding.
Mr. Yu is also being accused of collaborating with company S to illegally dispose of 425 tons of food waste like ham, flour, pineapple and canned beverages and styrofoam between September 2004 and September 2006.
Companies disposing over 100 tons of waste a year have to report as a waste emitter to the local ward office, but the USFK exchange hasn’t formally reported to a ward office since the exchange was founded in 1953. Accordingly, it’s believed the exchange has recklessly disposed of countless tons of waste a year.
Police believe that other waste items from U.S. bases are being sold through food stores in Namdaemun Market and other places, and are expanding their investigation accordingly.
A police official told Yonhap that since items delivered to USFK are treated differently, it’s virtually impossible for the government to control their distribution.
Sphere: Related Content
50 Comments
Black-marketing is such a big business here; it is not until major heists are caught that action seems to be taken. It is a crime against anyone who pays U.S. taxes.
And a one and a two and a three…
792,000 bottles of old beer on the wall
792,000 bottles of old beer
Take one down
Sell it downtown
791,999 bottles of old beer
Everyone, all together now!
791,999 bottles of old beer on the wall
Yep, beer does go bad, and pretty fast at that.
We all know beer gets “skunky”. It only lasts 3-5 months or so after production. Then, it should be disposed of.
Problem is Koreans would rather drink skunked out beer than throw it away. I’ll admit that it breaks my heart to throw out beer, but drinkin’ the skunky stuff is awful. The locals here don’t seem to know or care that the beer has gone bad. It has been very eveident that they do not have sophisticated pallets(spelling?) when it comes to the barley pop.
The Aafes beer delivery truck drops off pallets of beer to the small black markets very close to Camp Henry in Taegu every week. On Thursdays you can take a stroll just 10 minutes from the main Cp Henry gate and see pallets of Corona, Heineken, Miller Lite, etc. These aren’t cases of beer bought by ajimas from the Class 6 but f*cking pallets of beer right off the trucks. From here, it gets distrubuted to numerous Korean owned businesses in Taegu. Go to nearly every club in downtown Taegu and they are selling beer that came from Aafes.
Think about how high the corruption must go at Aafes for them to “write-off” 33,000 cases of beer at Yongsan alone and the thousands more that are not accounted for at Camp Walker/Henry in Taegu. I’m sure the same thing goes on at every base in Korea and has for decades.
I have no problem with buying a six pack of Heineken for $9 in a black market - assuming the date checks out - as opposed to about $13 in Emart or well over $16 or $17 per six in a 7-11 here. This wouldn’t be an issue if Korea didn’t ream us for good (imported) beer.
“and there have been many complaints recently of people falling ill with nausea and/or diarrhea after they drank old beer”
Yeah, that’s it. It’s all because of old imported beer. Actually, new Korean beer has the same affect.
…well, to be honest…All kinds of beer will make you nauseous if you drink too much, not just the beer you’ll find in Korea…the diarrhea thing, on the other hand…
I agree with globalvillageidiot in that I have no problems with the buying & selling of blackmarket beers.
I do have a problem with bar owners passing off old, skunked out beer at premium prices in their establishments. A friend of mine used to do with a few brands at his bar, namely Michelob Light. It was always old and skunky. We finally convinced him that only foriegners would be buying it at the prices he was charging for it and we wouldn’t be buying it if it was spoiled. He got with the program and stopped buying the cases of old beer on the black market. Plenty of other bars do, though.
I can’t drink the draft beer here because it gives me stomach cramps and the runs. A lot of bars never clean their draft lines. These lines are supposed to be cleaned avery month.
One thing to be on the lookout for is the liquor. Lots of bar owners buy the cheap sh!t and refill the expensive bottles with it. They pass it off as the expensive stuff and charge so.
Word of warning. Good day!
Funny, though, to be indicting “Korean beer”, when Inbev has owned Cass/OB for several years. Weren’t we expecting those fabled Belgian brewmasters to bring some QC to the local brews? Is it quite fair to blame some nebulous ‘Korea’ for your gastrointestinal distress, when the offending product belongs to the same family as Beck’s, Stella, Hoegarden and many other etceteras?
i drank skunky beer in the states, New York City !
On “quarter beers night”, though.
Perhaps FTA with US will lower the prices for some of you. But, doesn’t US beer stink, anyways?
I don’t know about it, though. This Australian says Austrailia got the wrong end of the deal…
http://www.ohmynews.com/articl.....ode=399707
“Funny, though, to be indicting “Korean beer”, when Inbev has owned Cass/OB for several years. Weren’t we expecting those fabled Belgian brewmasters to bring some QC to the local brews? Is it quite fair to blame some nebulous ‘Korea’ for your gastrointestinal distress, when the offending product belongs to the same family as Beck’s, Stella, Hoegarden and many other etceteras?”
Unfortunately, Inbev seems content with letting OB/Cass continue to produce their crap - including the latest monstrosity Cass Red 6.9 - as long as Koreans are happy to drink it. Don’t know if OB/Cass want or believe they need an upgrade considering the tastes of the local market. In the meantime, their core brands are widely (well, fairly widely) available - at a price, mind you - for those who look for more than “The Sound of Vitality” when it comes to enjoying beer.
Cut back on the taxes on import beer - taxes that see imports, on average, cost at least double that of local brews - and I wouldn’t bother with black markets.
I had the unique misfortune of sampling Cass Red 6.9 recently. A jar of ancient Egyptian beer from the British Museum with a modern dead skunk in it would have been a noticeable improvement.
This is more proof that Koreans really don’t give a shite what they are drinking, as long as it’s yellow. This is why you will never see a beer festival in Korea–they couldn’t be bothered with good beer. Meanwhile, I’ll head to Japan for good beer fests.
As for the diarrhea, it was probably the festering ojingo. The pH level of beer, even two-year-old beer, is too low for pathogens to survive
“I had the unique misfortune of sampling Cass Red 6.9 recently. A jar of ancient Egyptian beer from the British Museum with a modern dead skunk in it would have been a noticeable improvement.”
I made the mistake of buying two ‘pitchers’ of it on Saturday. I’ll give the unopened one to an unsuspecting friend as a ‘gift’.
Cass 6.9 truely is a bad beer. Imagine regular Cass, but with more alcohol (think Cass flavoured soju). Worse yet, the increased alcohol content highlights the beer’s faults, namely the lack of a generous–or even approriate–amount of hops and the use of rice as a substitute for malt. I’ve read somewhere that the aftertaste is best described as ‘nurrungji’, which seems accurate to me.
Cass Red 6.9 reminds me of Molson XXX and Labatts Maximum Ice (both 7% plus). Neither were very good - though not nearly as terrible as 6.9 - and seemed aimed at undiscriminating younger drinkers in search of a fast, cheap buzz. Corporate responsibility at its finest!
I’m reasonably sure that Korean university students and working class ajoshis, the latter the supposed target market of 6.9, won’t disappoint in terms of puking, fighting, and other objectionable behavior. Soju drinkers will likely remain the main culprits for public - and private - rowdiness, but I see the potential for “Red Heads” to further lower the bar for bad drinking behavior.
Anyway, strong beer can be really good (I’ve had some great ones from Belgium and Quebec and some really good seasonal ones from Germany and Austria) but as is the case with regular strength beer, it isn’t likely to come from the ROK.
Each time something new comes out here - Prime, Stout, Red Rock, Cafri, Exfeel, Prime Max, Cass Ice Light, and even that attrocious OB Ginseng - I always give it a try, but I stopped expecting to discover something really good long ago.
Anyway, I’ll end on a positive note! I remember when one was stuck with Hite, OB (”라거”), and Cass - along with the occasional bottle of Crown or NEX - with no import draught available whatsoever, so things have improved in terms of selection. And, as mediocre as the local stuff is, 2000 won/500 cc of OB in your local chicken “hof” - or 500 won more in the 3 Alley Pub - amounts to a cheap night out.
If Korea was a third world country with a dismal economy and little or no retail structure, yes I can see why people with money to burn will turn to the black market for the latest Sony camcorder or Heineken beer for that matter from AAFES exchanges.
But, Korea has a properous economy, and if one has money to burn one can go to the Yongsan electronic market to buy the latest Sony camcorder or to the local Emart for a Heineken. Okay, Korea’s trade policies are not friendly to imports, but still popular brands are available in local outlets. So I just don’t see the reason why Koreans are crazy about black market items from AAFES exchanges when there is a very big chance that they will be cheated by the crooks running the black market.
Unless, they believe buying and owning a black market AAFES item makes them a member of some sort of special class in Korean society.
“Funny, though, to be indicting “Korean beer”, when Inbev has owned Cass/OB for several years. Weren’t we expecting those fabled Belgian brewmasters to bring some QC to the local brews? Is it quite fair to blame some nebulous ‘Korea’ for your gastrointestinal distress, when the offending product belongs to the same family as Beck’s, Stella, Hoegarden and many other etceteras?”
Yes, it’s sad that Inbev isn’t increasing the variety of its domestic labels with quality brews instead of relying on its imported labels to satisfy the more discerning palettes…But, you’re still missing the point. I doubt they taste tested Cass 6.9 on a group of Belgian beer drinkers during the design process.
I met the Inbev marketing guy once–good chap. He’s smart enough to give the market what it wants, and it certainly doesn’t want beer with any detectable hops.
Re #15 by GlobalVillageIdiot:
Yes, my friend. You remember the luxury days after the end of Binary Choice: OB or Crown. Be it OB or be it Crown, we rejected many a badly skunked bottle of beer, with no questions asked because everyone knew that at least one or two bottles out of ten were known to be bad. More often than not, you would smell it before you tasted it.
Of course, there’s probably someone on this list who remembers the time before Crown when there was only one choice…
“Anyway, I’ll end on a positive note! I remember when one was stuck with Hite, OB (”라거”), and Cass - along with the occasional bottle of Crown or NEX - with no import draught available whatsoever, so things have improved in terms of selection. And, as mediocre as the local stuff is, 2000 won/500 cc of OB in your local chicken “hof” - or 500 won more in the 3 Alley Pub - amounts to a cheap night out.”
Although we are years away from having a good beer market here, at least you can get a decent pale ale (Alley Cat) and a few decent German beers on draft, and most of the Itaewon pubs do clean their pipes. Certainly, caveat emptor applies to drinking beer in Korea as much as anything else, though.
it wasn’t 33,000 cases of beer. it was 33,000 half cases of beer. 12 bottles per box.
If the US military has to throw out stuff due to it passing expiration, then that indicates VERY poor inventory management. A huge waste of taxpayers funds. Definitely someone should be getting their arse kicked.
There’s a hof about a block south of Wood and Brick restaurant in Kwanghwamun selling Kronenbourg 1664, a good French beer (yes, there is such a thing) and nearby another one sells Genghis Khan beer (haven’t tried that one yet).
The USFK-supplied black market here seems to make up a big percentage of the underground economy in Korea, and also seems like an anachronism for a “developed” economy, but I guess old habits die hard.
USFK-supplied black market…
For those establishments that do not have an official alcohol license or is “lent” a license by “someone else”.
“There’s a hof about a block south of Wood and Brick restaurant in Kwanghwamun selling Kronenbourg 1664, a good French beer (yes, there is such a thing) and nearby another one sells Genghis Khan beer (haven’t tried that one yet).”
Kronenbourg is pretty good. Probably because the brewery is in an area - Strasbourg to be specific -that used to be German.
Is Khan beer Mongolian?
Global–exactly right. Dunno about Khan beer.
Steer clear of Cass Red though, it’s vile stuff.
“…If the US military has to throw out stuff due to it passing expiration, then that indicates VERY poor inventory management. A huge waste of taxpayers funds…”
If this is AAFES purchased beer, then it is costing the US taxpayer very little. About 98% of AAFES expenses are covered by its own income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAFES
I suppose you could say the other AAFES customers (US military personnel) worldwide are bearing the cost of whatever inefficiency may be involved. AAFES 6-pack beer prices in military bases near San Antonio are roughly comparable to off-post prices, from what I have seen; you can avoid the TX state sales tax (about 8%) but then there’s the cost of gas to drive on-post to consider.
Be interesting to know where the different brands involved in this story of expired AAFES beer are made and then bottled (if it’s more than one location). I imagine it’s getting to Korea by ship, so it could be there are unavoidable shipping delays involved, also I wonder if the beer is getting heated by sunlight while sitting in metal shipping containers in a port somewhere. That probably won’t help its shelf life.
I was wondering earlier why no domestic Korean brewer can turn out a reasonably good lager, then I got to read some of the connoiseur comments about domestic Korean beers above. Considering that German/European brewmasters have taken their art all over the world, you’d think that they would have penetrated to Korea by now.
The Tsingtao (Chinese) and Asahi (Japanese) brands that I’ve sampled here in CONUS have been reasonably good; not sure where the US domestic versions of these are bottled. Seems like somebody enterprising could bring them into Korea from their nearby home countries, if there is actually any sort of niche market in ROK for a good lager.
Not exactly. Transport of goods from the Continental United States (CONUS) to Out-of-CONUS (OCONUS) areas is subsidized by the US taxpayer — that means a direct transfer of appropriated taxpayer funds to AAFES in order to ship those US beers over to Korea’s black market. Overseas base exchanges also get their utilities paid for — supplied free of charge from the base utility and works departments. So black marketing involves Koreans stealing from US taxpayers.
As for why no Korean brewer can turn out a good beer, it’s because there is no (sizeable) demand for it. These brewers are not fools. As soon as Korean beer drinkers demand better beer, they will get it.
“This is more proof that Koreans really don’t give a shite what they are drinking, as long as it’s yellow.”
Oh, oh. Maybe I’ve been in Korea too long. I didn’t like Korean beer for the longest time, but now I actually like Cass and the new Hite Prime.
I’ve always liked Guinness and other top of the line beers but I’m not willing to fork out 10,000 in a bar or 7,000 in a grocery store for a small canned version of it. So the cheap Korean shite it is!
Not strictly true. Korea bans foreign malts (or at least taxes them so severely that they are practically banned… I forget which), and domestic malt sucks.
If there is no demand for decent beer, why did the beer hall phenomenon explode in Korea as big as it did? From zero microbreweries to over a hundred in less than two years. Granted, most sucked and many have gone under, but I think it showed a significant demand.
Rather, as is usual in Korea, the Korean brewers rig the game to keep out competition. As with so many others here, they would far rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Perhaps there was faddish demand for the bricks-and-brass “beer hall” environment in which to sit, smoke, and shout at one’s friends whilst drinking the same old beer, rather than a hue and cry for “quality microbrewery beer” (which assumes that microbrew is somehow “better” beer). Also, your example is somewhat self-proving in that most of these places have foundered — there was not enough demand to support the investment.
Breweries in Korea (mostly hofs):
http://beerme.com/breweries/ks/index.shtml
Has anybody tried this place: http://www.castlepraha.co.kr/
Looks like it might be good….
I was there earlier this month. Totally underwhelming taste.
Thanks Dogbert, that saved me some won.
It seems like Mr. Carr is the only poster on this topic that is not so stupid to see that Americans are being screwed. You guys are mentally lazy. Wake up!
“I’ve always liked Guinness and other top of the line beers but I’m not willing to fork out 10,000 in a bar or 7,000 in a grocery store for a small canned version of it. So the cheap Korean shite it is!”
Maybe you can’t get to Itaewon, but for those who can, but 500cc’s of Guinness 7,500 in Three Alleys, and 7,000 in The Wolfhound.
“It seems like Mr. Carr is the only poster on this topic that is not so stupid to see that Americans are being screwed.”
Maybe he’s the only one who cares, rather than the only one who’s not stupid!!!
“It seems like Mr. Carr is the only poster on this topic that is not so stupid to see that Americans are being screwed.”
Maybe he’s the only one who cares, rather than the only one who’s not stupid!!
Could be he is paying more tax than most!
I work in an industry where I can see others’ employment agreements on a regular basis. Trust me — I’m not paying more tax than most!
Haisan: You are correct. The duty on malt is something like 275% and the lousy local malt is controlled by the big boys, who keep the price much higher than the world market.
As these micros in town transition from “expensive” foreign brewers to Koreans the quality goes to hell. In beer, the Korean “almost right” mentality doesn’t cut it. Micros are excellent in Japan because when they do something, they do it right.
Does it really cut it in anything? Bridges, department stores, natural gas distribution substations?
Let me put in a plug for the Big Rock brewery in Kangnam, since someone enqired about Castle Praha in the same ‘hood. Go straight out the back door of Starbucks (Kangnam Station northeast exit, I think it’s #7), and keep going up the hill about 50 meters or so. Food’s good, and the many varieties of Alberta beer are great. Atmosphere a tad sterile, but about right for Kangnam…
“I work in an industry where I can see others’ employment agreements on a regular basis. Trust me — I’m not paying more tax than most!”
Brendan, surely not a representative sample of your average korean worker? Many don’t even have an employment agreement let alone one inspected by a boutique firm of lawyers.
I guess I am totally off-base (Pun intended) on the local exploitation of American tax dollars. I am glad that contributors to this thread can afford the shrinkage. Perhaps we should add a category next contributing to the presidential fund on our tax returns for Korean graft.
next to
Sorry
My sample is representative only of foreign companies’ top staff. I’m a management-side employment lawyer — my clients are the employers, usually multinationals. The agreements I see are for country managers and other senior staff, both expatriate and Korean. Every day a new surprise: Some people are wildly overpaid, some wildly underpaid. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.
My point exactly. Thanks for the clarification.
As to the rhyme or reason, as it always has been, so it shall always be in international business!!!
My point exactly. Thanks for the clarification.
As to the rhyme or reason, as it always has been, so it shall always be in international business!!!
What are you talking about?
#43, #46, #47
The point is U.S. taxpayers are being cheated by this crime and even with tax equalization, Americans pay the cost for this crime.
One Trackback
[...] The Marmot is reporting that AAFES employees are involved in black marketing of beer in Korea: [...]