Browse Data and Analysis

In September 2024, a National Assembly member submitted a draft revision of the Act on Transboundary Movements of Living Modified Organisms, commonly referred to as the LMO Act.

Korea’s wine import sector has been undergoing a stabilizing phase since the explosive growth around 2021. In 2023, wine imports reached 506 million USD, down 12.9 percent from the previous year, totaling 56.5 million kg, a decrease of 20.4 percent compared to 2022.

Korea’s fresh pear production is projected to rise by 10.2 percent to 202,000 metric tons (MT) in marketing year (MY) 2024/25, helped by favorable weather and lower incidences of diseases and pests compared to the previous year.

Market share of U.S. corn in South Korea is expected to remain strong in MY 2024/25 after rebounding to 20 percent in MY 2023/24. Domestic rice production continues its slow decline as the government incentivizes farmers to switch to planting alternate crops.

Korean seafood imports totaled $5.93 billion in 2023, down 8.3 percent from 2022. Korean 2023 seafood imports from the United States totaled $203 million, a decrease of 11.4 percent year-to-year.

Korea’s total citrus production for Marketing Year (MY) 2020/21 (October – September) is projected to reach 660,000 metric tons (MT).

Domestic milk production is forecast to return to 2.03 million tons after spiking to 2.1 million tons in 2020.

Korea is in the process of drafting a proposal to revise its existing Living Modified Organism (LMO) Act to cover products of innovative biotechnologies, including genome edited products.

The United States exported $8.9 billion in agricultural and related products to South Korea in 2019, making it our fifth largest agricultural export market.