April 5, 2012

South Korea's Q1 food, agriculture exports up 11% on-year

In the first quarter of this year, South Korea's food and agriculture exports grew more than 11% on-year on solid demand in the US, Japan and China, the government said Tuesday (Apr 3).

In the January to March period, South Korea shipped US$1.82 billion worth of farm products, up 11.2% from the same period last year, according to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The growth was largely led by an increase in shipments of fresh produce and fishery products, which rose 27.5% and 13.5% on-year, respectively, a news agency reports.

Exports of processed food products also rose 6.7% from a year earlier, the ministry said.

"The first quarter export gain is noteworthy because it was achieved despite sluggish global growth that hurt trade," a ministry official said.

By nation, exports to the US jumped 17.3% on-year to US$156.5 million with Japan, the world's largest importer of South Korean food products, purchasing US$555.8 million worth of products, up 15% from the same period in 2011.

Shipments to China rose 13.6% to US$294.6 million, with exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gaining 8.1% on-year to US$251.2 million.

South Korea aims to export over US$10 billion worth of farm, fishery and food products this year from a record US$7.7 billion reached in 2011.