South Korea is one of Oregon's top export markets for agriculture. But there is great potential to expand the volume of those products and make way for new ones given the current tastes and trends of the Korean consumer.
A recently completed trade mission to South Korea organized by the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association reinforced the importance of penetrating a market that includes more than 50 million people who crave many of the products Oregon can provide.
“The products that we already export to Korea are in high demand and we can continue to increase that market share, but there are great opportunities for additional products, based on what we saw and heard,” said Erick Garman, trade manager with the Oregon Department of Agriculture and member of the WUSATA delegation.
Garman and others toured several retail outlets in Seoul as part of the trade mission and also received some detailed presentations from U.S. agricultural officials based in South Korea. That included information on what’s hot in the consumer market. Sang Yong Oh, senior marketing specialist at the US Agricultural Trade Office in Seoul, briefed the WUSATA delegates on key trends:
• While South Korean consumers are tightening their overall spending because of an economic downturn, they still spend 27.5 percent of their household expenditures on food.
• An ageing population is one chief reason Korean consumers are fixated on improving their diet and overall health. Healthy foods are in demand including fruits and tree nuts.
• More women are joining the workforce, resulting in more demand for quick meal solutions. It also means more men in the kitchen — something that would have seemed inconceivable a generation ago.
• Because of the preoccupation with well-being and healthy, healing food products, Korean consumers are looking for small treats and indulgences for self-rewards. Certain foods that may seem to run counter to “healthy” are nonetheless accepted and often desired by consumers who look forward to something sweet and snacky once in awhile.
• While there is more demand for price and value, Korea’s high income groups are expanding. More consumers have become exposed to international cultures and cuisines. They are less loyal to local agriculture and have a demand for new tastes.
The Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement signed in 2012 has increased U.S. exports to Korea by nearly 5 percent and greatly reduced tariffs, leading to more competitive prices for American exports. Oregon now exports nearly $100 million in agricultural products to Korea.
The demand for fruit and nuts is especially attractive to Oregon, which has already established a strong export market for fresh blueberries, being the only U.S. state, so far, to gain access into the Korean market for blueberries. Fresh, frozen, dried, and other processed Oregon blueberries can be found in large Korean stores like Costco, Emart, and Shinsegae. For the past three years, Oregon has exported between 1 million and 1.3 million pounds of fresh blueberries to South Korea, even though 2016 showed a 31 percent decrease. Strong domestic blueberry production in Korea was among the reasons for that drop. But as tariffs continue to drop from 35 percent prior to KORUS-FTA to elimination in 2022, Oregon blueberries will become even more competitive in the future. The blueberry success story can hopefully open the door for other Oregon berries.
Koreans love tree nuts as well, which could provide an opportunity for Oregon hazelnut growers if the production is high enough to meet the demand. Koreans are not familiar with hazelnuts, so the same kind of promotion and education effort done for blueberries would be necessary to launch the product.
