Commissary shoppers in South Korea will start seeing fresh eggs and frozen poultry products from the U.S. at the end of August, officials said.

The U.S. products are being allowed after South Korea government officials changed their poultry embargo that had restricted the import of uncooked poultry from the U.S. since December 2014. At that time, U.S. officials announced the presence of avian influenza in live poultry flocks in various states.

"This is welcome news for everyone associated with commissaries — customers and employees alike," said Wayne Walk, the Defense Commissary Agency's zone manager in South Korea, in an announcement. "We're working with our suppliers to get frozen thighs, breasts, wings and whole chickens, eggs and other uncooked poultry products from the U.S. into stores as quickly as possible. We expect U.S. poultry to be fully stocked again by the end of September."

But the embargo wasn't lifted in time for commissaries to place its usual orders of U.S. turkeys for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

"Turkey suppliers required orders placed by the beginning of April," said Jack McGregor, DeCA's Pacific Area logistics chief. "We ordered turkeys in April from our known and reliable supplier in Australia that produces the Steggles brand."

These poultry products are shipped frozen from the U.S.

The commissaries will continue to carry fresh chicken products and eggs from local sources in South Korea. They've been carrying these products, along with uncooked frozen poultry from Australia during the embargo.

Karen Jowers covers military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times. She can be reached at kjowers@militarytimes.com.

Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.

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