South Korea sees Vietnam as a growing export market
However, this creates unstable market conditions. For example, Korea has experienced abrupt changes to exports to the three countries because of political and economic issues, such as the deployment of THAAD, the Comfort Woman issue, and the low yen.
Therefore, diversifying the export market is mandatory for increasing agricultural exports. The Korean government is working hard to expand its markets. They are doing this not only in ASEAN, where the Korean Wave is in vogue, but also in Brazil, Italy, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and India. And surely, interest in Korean agricultural food products in Vietnam has been rising in the wake of the Korean Wave. Now, Vietnam has become the fourth largest importer of Korean food.
Kfoodstory.com reports how Ramyeon takes the lion’s share of exports from Korea (US$ 12.8 million as of November 2017), but the increase of the export of fresh farm products (led by fruit) is starting to move ahead. In fact, the export of strawberry, currently in the spotlight, was US$ 1.6 million by November, having jumped about 380% from the same period of the previous year. The exports of grape and pear were US$ 1.9 million and US$ 8.5 million, up 240% and 128%, respectively, from the same period of the previous year. Apples also increased 148% to US$ 0.9 million, while seaweed increased 42% to US$ 6.3 million, becoming the largest marine product exported.