South Korean food exports to Japan are showing upward trends on record after radioactive contamination and supply disruptions prompted consumers to switch to overseas producers. According to the Korea International Trade Association, or KITA the sales of watermelons, tuna and noodles led a 38 percent jump in South Korea’s shipments of food to its Asian neighbour to $604 million in the second quarter from a year earlier.
Increasing demand of South Korean seafood has boosted the exports of the country against the weak markets of US and Europeans. Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co.’s drink sales to Japan have more than doubled and its shares have risen 58 percent since the March temblor and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Sean Hwang, head of research at Mirae Asset Securities Co. in Seoul, said that Japans’ snuclear disaster is a boon for Korean companies from food producers to carmakers.
Recent calamity in Japan has spurred an increase in imports, resulting in the nation posting trade deficits in April and May. Hwang said power constraints may aid Korean exporters at least through September. Demand from Japan helped limit a slowdown in South Korea’s export growth in the second quarter. Shipments rose 1.8 percent from the first three months of the year, when they increased 3.3 percent, a central bank report this week showed. Industrial output climbed 6.4 percent in June from a year earlier, the slowest pace in nine months, a government report showed today.
South Korea’s government said it’s confident of securing a 29 percent increase in agricultural, food and fishery shipments to $7.6 billion this year and a similar gain in 2012. Wider distribution channels and the popularity across Asia of South Korean television dramas and songs that help to promote the nation will assist in achieving those goals, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a July 5 statement.
