South Korea Releases 2024 Import and Export Food Report

(1) In 2024, South Korea imported 846,000 boxes of food from 164 countries, totaling 19.38 million tons, with an import value of $35.7 billion. Import volume increased by 6.8% year-on-year, while import quantity rose by 5.4% and import value grew by 2.7%. (2) By importing country, the top three of the 164 import nations were the United States (wheat, soybeans, etc.), China (kimchi, refined salt, etc.), and Australia (wheat, food raw materials requiring refinement), accounting for 52.6% of total imports (10.196 million tons), with China accounting for 3.615 million tons (a 9.4% year-on-year increase). By category: agricultural and forestry products (46.5%, 9.04 million tons), processed foods (34.3%, 6.647 million tons), livestock products (9.3%, 1.805 million tons), aquatic products (4.6%, 901,000 tons), food additives (2.4%, 465,000 tons), and health functional foods (0.1%, 23,000 tons). (3) Substandard imports accounted for 0.04% of total imports ...