The nation saw agro-fishery exports surpass $10 billion, a record high. The achievement is the most since 1971 when export statistics began to be managed.
Cumulative exports surged to $10.13 billion as of Nov. 25, with agricultural exports worth $7.63 billion and fishery exports worth $2.5 billion. The figure represents a 16.1 percent surge over the same period last year.
Korean cuisine and related food cultures have been spread to the globe as the nation exported agro-fishery products in earnest in the 1990s, and implemented a project to globalize Korean cuisine in 2008.
Thanks to the government’s policies, such as one to concentrate on exploring “New Southern and New Northern Countries,” the number of countries to which the nation exported agro-fishery products soared to 200, contributing to maintaining solid growth momentum.
In particular, even though the nation’s exports faced a crisis amid the Covid-19 pandemic since last year, agro-fishery exports logged $9.87 billion, the most ever.
This year, despite the prolonged pandemic and global logistics quagmire, agro-fishery exports continued to post a higher growth rate.
Cumulative agro-fishery exports surpassed $10 billion for the first time with a yearly growth rate of 161 percent, the highest in a decade.
The feat was owed to efforts made jointly by the private sector, such as farming and fishing households, and export companies, as well as the government and the public sector.
The private sector has been credited with raising the competitiveness of exports by stabilizing exports and managing quality and safety in a thorough fashion by institutionalizing exports, led by farming, fishing households and export companies.
The government has been recognized for providing support, such as provision of information via overseas networks, coping with non-tariff barriers, exploring online marketing networks, expanding of logistics infrastructure, and the nurturing of promising export items.
It is noteworthy that the feat of exporting $10 billion won was attributable to the exporting of agricultural produce, directly related to farming households’ income and traditional Korean food products such as ginseng and kimchi.
In the past, straw berries and grapes were domestic consumption items, but they have established themselves as items contributing to raise farming households’ income by recording a high growth rate for the past decade by developing varieties fitting for exporting and exploring premium markets.
Laver exports soared to more than $600 million to become the No. 1 export item. Laver exported to 113 countries, the highest one.
Fishery food exports such as oyster, flatfish and eomuk (fish cake), exported in meal kit and other handy cooking formats, have enjoyed popularity.
Kimchi and ginseng are expected to chalk up a record high of exports during the whole of this year thanks to the rising global concern over health foods and the exploring of markets such as the United States, Japan, and the New Southern Countries.
The government does not rest on the feat of exporting $10 billion. It will do its best to continue to foster export growth to help farming and fishing households increase their income, and export companies boost the export industry.
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