Increasing Agricultural Aid... 'K-Food' Export Takes Off

Agricultural Official Development Assistance (ODA) expansion has been found to have a positive impact on the export of K-food, including Korea's agricultural and food products as well as related upstream and downstream industries.

According to the report "The Impact of Agricultural ODA Expansion on K-food Exports and Its Implications" released on the 9th by the Korea Rural Economic Institute, an examination of the relationship between agricultural ODA and exports was conducted targeting the top five agricultural ODA donor countries among OECD member countries?namely the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The results showed that over the past 20 years, as agricultural ODA increased, the exports of agricultural and food products and related upstream and downstream industries from these donor countries also showed an increasing trend.

This suggests that developed countries pursue economic benefits by linking development aid, which contributes to the economic and social development of developing countries, with exports.

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Following the global trend of ODA support, Korea's ODA support has also shown an upward trend thanks to the government's continuous efforts to secure ODA budgets. As of 2021, Korea's ODA support amount reached a record high of $3.15652 billion (approximately 4.2 trillion KRW). Korea's agricultural ODA scale has been increasing at an average annual rate of 8.6% over the past 10 years, focusing on key Asian partner countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. Recently, the range of recipient countries has diversified to include regions in Latin America and Africa, such as Colombia, Ethiopia, and Egypt.

Status of Agricultural ODA, Agro-food, and Related Industry Exports in Our Country

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While developed countries link agricultural ODA with their own food exports, Korea has also seen an increase in K-food exports centered on the top five recipient countries as the scale of agricultural ODA support grows. However, in Asia, although agricultural ODA support has expanded and the status of K-food has risen, leading to increased agricultural and food product exports, the impact on exports of related upstream and downstream industries is still estimated to be minimal. In Africa, agricultural and food product exports are not yet significantly linked to agricultural ODA.

The Korea Rural Economic Institute emphasized the need to strengthen the linkage between ODA and K-food exports from a mid- to long-term perspective. It explained that an in-depth analysis of the scale of support by agricultural ODA sector and its linkage with K-food exports is necessary to strategically expand agricultural ODA in specific fields. However, it added that since the international community is moving away from aid practices where ODA for the economic and social development of developing countries is directly linked to economic motives such as exports, expanding agricultural and food product exports linked to ODA is a challenging task in the short term given the purpose of ODA support.

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