South Korea’s whiskey imports experienced a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.1% in value from 2020 to 2024, totaling $249 million. The United States ranked as the second-largest supplier of whiskey to Korea, following the United Kingdom.

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 2023, the food processing industry generated over 85 trillion Korean Won (approximately $65.0 billion) in sales.

E-commerce is one of the largest retail channels and an essential component of the overall consumer market in Korea. Food related online sales in 2023 including food, agricultural products, and food delivery services was once again the largest category, occupying about 30 percent of the total online sales for three consecutive years. Korean consumers in their 30’s living alone reported that they purchased more groceries online than offline, and purchased food online, on average, five times a month. While shelf-stable food including water, grains, and processed food has been the major food category shopped online, home meal replacement and fresh food categories are growing rapidly. NOTE: This is a corrected report. The previous report was published on December 30, 2024. This report corrects the percentages listed in Figure 2 and Figure 3 on page 4.

Chocolate is a popular product in the Korean market, with 2023 sales reaching $578 million and imports of chocolate totaling $356 million. The primary outlets for purchasing chocolates include convenience stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets, and similar outlets. Chocolate is mainly purchased as needed and not in bulk. The United States is the leading supplier of chocolate to Korea, with 21% market share in 2023.