Browse Data and Analysis

FAS/Seoul forecasts 2025 Korean cattle production and slaughter will drop to 951,000 head and 1,078,000 head respectively. FAS/Seoul forecasts 2025 beef imports to dip to 574,000 metric tons (MT).

On March 12, 2025, the Government of Egypt (GoE) filed a ninth addendum to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) – G/TBT/N/EGY/313/Add.9 – informing interested parties that it was excluding imports of milk and dairy products from the scope of its Halal certification requirements.

Korean imports of cheese products continue to grow, seeing a five percent compound annual growth rate over the last five years. Mozzarella is the most imported cheese product and the United States is the leading supplier of cheese to Korea.

Egypt has released a pair of Government Decrees, several World Trade Organization notifications, and a revised Egyptian Standard in recent months on the shelf-life validity period for frozen beef liver and other products.

FAS/Seoul forecasts Korea’s 2025 milk production to decrease to 1.92 million tons. Korean milk production continues to decline in line with industry contraction and demographic-driven consumption declines.

On September 19, 2024, the Government of Egypt filed an eighth addendum to the World Trade Organization's (WTO’s) Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) -- G/TBT/N/EGY/313/Add.8 -- informing interested parties that the time period during which imported milk and dairy products that are not accompanied by a Halal certificate will be permitted to enter Egypt has been extended until December 31, 2025.

Chicken production in South Korea will continue its gradual growth trend through 2024 and into 2025, as poultry inventories recover from productivity challenges in 2023 and fend off a 2024 outbreak of HPAI.

On July 1, 2024, the United States and Republic of Korea agreed to the labeling requirements outlined in this report regarding storage state for U.S. red meat and poultry products and U.S. processed red meat, poultry, egg, and dairy products.

On June 27, 2024, the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry signed Decree No. 361/2024. The Decree extended the shelf-life validity period for imported frozen beef liver from seven to twelve months and for frozen fish from six to ten months. The decree is valid for six months, as of July 1, 2024, and expires on December 31, 2024.

The 2023 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world during the 2023 calendar year.

In 2023, the Korean government implemented three rounds of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for various imported agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, including new TRQs to stabilize food prices.

Ample opportunities exist for U.S. agricultural exports to South Korea. Highlighted in the chart above, U.S. agricultural product exports were a record $9.5 billion in 2022, up 2 percent from 2021. South Korea is the sixth largest export market for the United States, thanks in part to a successful free trade agreement (KORUS) between the two countries and a robust demand for high-quality U.S. food products.