Last Year, Pork and Kimchi Imports Increased... "Impact of Daily Recovery and High Inflation" (Comprehensive)

Citizens shopping at a large supermarket in downtown Seoul [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byun Seon-jin] The scale of imported foods such as livestock products and kimchi significantly increased last year. This was due to the government reducing tariffs on imported agricultural products like pork and chicken for a certain period to stabilize prices, as well as the recovery of the dining-out industry with the return to normal life.

According to the "2022 Imported Food Statistics" announced by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the 26th, the total number of import declarations for domestic foods last year was 802,201 cases. Foods from 166 countries including the United States, China, and Australia, covering 2,330 items, 19.5 million tons, and worth 38.955 billion dollars were imported. Although the number of import declarations decreased by 1.5% compared to the previous year, the import volume and value increased by 3.0% and 19.6%, respectively.

Import volumes of all item groups increased compared to the previous year, with particularly large increases in health functional foods (up 20.0%) and livestock products (up 14.5%). Livestock products increased by 14.5% compared to the previous year, more than five times the recent 5-year average annual growth rate (2.6%). This was influenced by the application of tariff quotas on pork and chicken in June and July last year due to high inflation, resulting in import volumes of pork and chicken increasing by 25.9% and 54.0%, respectively.

Kimchi imports, which had been declining since COVID-19, increased again last year due to the impact of high inflation and the lifting of restaurant operation restrictions. 100% of kimchi imported into Korea is from China. Kimchi import volume decreased for two consecutive years from 306,619 tons in 2019 to 281,021 tons in 2020 and 243,124 tons in 2021, but turned to an increase last year, reaching 263,498 tons.

With health management gaining attention after COVID-19, the import volume of health functional foods has steadily risen. Last year, 27,045 tons of health functional foods were imported, a 20.0% increase compared to the previous year, exceeding the recent 5-year average annual import volume growth rate of 18.9%. Imports of complex nutrients products for nutritional supplementation such as vitamins and minerals increased significantly by 51.6%. The import volume of xylitol, which helps dental health, increased by 167.5%. The main countries exporting food to Korea are the United States and China, with their combined import volume accounting for 33.8% of the total.

Last year, 3,426,671 tons and 3,171,318 tons of food were imported from the United States and China, respectively. In the United States, wheat, soybeans, and corn accounted for 2,022,587 tons (59.0%), more than half of the imports. In China, processed foods such as kimchi (263,495 tons), refined salt (231,369 tons), and pickled foods (151,610 tons) ranked first to third, respectively.

Meanwhile, the rate of non-compliance cases in customs inspections last year was 0.18% (1,427 cases), similar to the previous year (0.17%, 1,414 cases). The top five countries with non-compliance cases (by number) were China, Vietnam, the United States, Thailand, and India. The reasons included violations of individual standards and specifications (32.1%, 458 cases) and violations of pesticide residue tolerance standards (22.2%, 317 cases).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.