South Korea: Food Processing Ingredients
The United States was the largest supplier of agricultural, food, fishery and forestry products to Korea, with a 20 percent market share in 2015. About 70 percent of food products in Korea are imported. Korea maintains a strong processing industry that manufactures a wide variety of processed agricultural and food products, which generated an estimated $41 billion of cash register sales in 2014, down 0.8 percent from the previous year. The Korean food and beverage manufacturing and processing industry are major users of imported agricultural products. The Korean economy currently faces another tide of challenges as the recovery of its major export markets has slowed under the extended global economic downturn and increased competition. U.S. market share should continue to increase under the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to generate more export opportunities for U.S. food processing ingredients.
