Korean abalone: Gaining popularity in Vietnam thanks to the Korean wave

Thanks to the Hallyu wave, Korean abalone is becoming popular in Vietnam. According to “Trends and Tasks for Abalone Imports and Exports,” written by Jinwoo Seong, an associate research fellow at the Fisheries Observation Center at the Korea Maritime and Fisheries Development Institute, Vietnam was counted as the country with the second largest export of abalone after Japan last year. Until 2015, almost no abalone was exported to Vietnam, but in 2016, small amounts of abalone began to be exported, mainly live abalone. In 2019, 84 tons were exported, and in 2020, it recorded 140 tons, showing a tendency to rapidly increase the export volume of Korean abalone. According to the data, Vietnam was a country that did not like to eat abalone like other countries except China and Japan. However, the Korean Wave, which has had a major impact on Vietnamese popular culture, has recently expanded to food culture, and eventually, Korean abalone has started to be used as a food ingredient in ...