Foodstuff and Agriculture Exports Reach Record

Exports of agriculture and foods reached a record this past year, ironically thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Agriculture and foodstuff exports totaled US$7.57 billion in 2020, up 7.7 percent from the prior year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs explained Monday.

Exports of fruit and other fresh manufacture rose 3.4 percent to $1.43 billion, while processed food items like kimchi, prompt noodles and red-pepper paste jumped 8.8 percent to $6.14 billion.

Exports to the U.S. surged 38 percent to $1.21 billion, while exports China rose 2.9 percent to $1.14 billion.

The ministry attributed the increase to "efforts to match the tastes of foreign consumers." For instance, vegetarian kimchi and canned versions of the spicy fermented dish had been extremely popular.

Because of this Korea's kimchi exports surged 37.6 percent on-year to $145 million.

Prompt noodles were also tweaked to meet the tastes of buyers overseas, where they can be purchased in flavors that can't be found in Korea just like lobster and sometimes fruit.

It appears the coronavirus pandemic helped raise agriculture and foodstuff exports. Firstly, shipments of Korean ginseng items increased 9.3 percent due to increased global knowing of the health great things about the root. And as a growing number of people stayed at home in lockdown, demand for processed rice goods like microwaveable tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cake in spicy chili paste) and rice gruel soared, resulting in a 26.7-percent spike on exports of such products.

The global popularity of Korean pop culture also fueled a fad for everything Korean. A lot more people abroad want to cook Korean foodstuff, leading to exports of necessary Korean seasonings like gochujang (reddish peper paste), deonjang (soybean paste) and ganjang (soybean sauce) swelling to a lot more than W10 million. Gochujang led the boom with a 35.2 percent progress in exports.