Lack of agreement with Mercosur takes Brazil out of the South Korean juice market

National Association of Citrus Juice Exporters (CitrusBR) study states that the import fee paid by the producer makes the sale of the Brazilian orange juice unfeasible in South Korea. The loss of this market is an outcome of a series of bilateral agreements between South Korea and other countries like the United States and Europe. Prior to these agreements, Brazil was a major supplier of orange juice (FCOJ) to the Asian country. In the 2002/03 harvest, 33,900 tonnes were exported and generated revenue of USD 28 million. On the other hand, in the 2019/20 harvest, only 46 tons of FCOJ were sent to Korea which is a 99.8% drop in volume.
South Korea has established in the World Trade Organization (WTO) a 54% ad valorem tariff levied on all countries in the world. This rate might change depending upon the negotiations between Mercosur and South Korea culminate in a bilateral agreement. With almost 52 million inhabitants and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 1.6 trillion in 2019, South Korea is a valuable market and the weight of the tariff to access this market can be seen by the history of imports from that country.