Korea’s agro-fisheries and foods record $10 billion in exports

Exports of South Korean agricultural and fishery food products reached the 10 billion dollar threshold for the first time this year. With satisfaction levels of foreigners with Korean cuisine going up to 95 percent, such a milestone is interpreted as a growing popularity of K-food items thanks to the global success of K-pop and K-content.

As of Thursday, this year recorded a export volume of 10.1 billion and 3 million dollars in agricultural and fishery items, 16.1 percent up on a year-on-year basis, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on Sunday. The 10-billion-dollar threshold in this division was first reached this year since 1971 when related statistics started being collected. The annual exports of agro-fisheries and foods was 9.87 billion dollars last year.

The No. 1 export item turned out to be dried lever products with an export volume of more than 600 million dollars across 113 countries. Going beyond domestic demand, strawberries, grapes, ginseng and kimchi became popular products in the world. “This year’s export increase rate of 16.1 percent is a 10-year high in this division,” said a government official, attributing a growing popularity of these items to an increasing global interest in healthy food and the spread of Korean Wave, Hallyu.

Korean cuisine is winning over the hearts of people across the globe. As per surveys done by the Food Ministry and the Korean Food Promotion Institute from August to September in 17 major cities in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, etc., 94.5 percent of local residents said that they are satisfied with Korean food, 3.5 percentage points up from last year’s survey.


Choong-Hyun Song balgun@donga.com