Korea's food processing industry relies heavily on imports to fulfill its food and agricultural needs in order to manufacture a wide variety of food and beverage products. Given this demand, there is ample opportunity for imported agricultural products for processing use including bulk commodities such as wheat, intermediate ingredients such as fruit juice concentrates, and many other products, such as flavors and coloring agents. In 2022, the food processing industry generated over 81 trillion Korean Won (approximately $63.3 billion) in sales.

As the 5th largest country export market for the United States, Korea provides a promising market for U.S. agricultural products. In 2022, Korea imported about $50 billion agricultural and food products from all over the world and the U.S. supplied a fifth of it, ranking number one. Other key suppliers were China, Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand. This year, Korea's overall agricultural imports are forecast to fall short of the 2022 value by 10 percent partly due to decreased demand from both the retail and processing sectors. From January to October, the U.S. exports fell below the level of last year’s record for the same period, primarily driven by reductions in grain, feed, frozen beef, and dairy product exports. However, U.S. food and agricultural products will continue to be competitive in this market in the long run considering extended consumer interests in quality, safety, and sustainability.

Korean seafood imports totaled $6.47 billion in 2022, up 12.7 percent from the year before. Seafood for human consumption imported from the United States to Korea in 2022 reached $229 million, an increase of 5.6 percent year-to-year. The United States remains the fifth largest seafood exporter to Korea with a 3.5 percent market share. Korean consumers generally see U.S. fishery products as high-quality and unpolluted, but regional competitors often have lower prices.

Korea Seafood Market Update 2023_Seoul ATO_Korea - Republic of_KS2023-0017