South Korea's beer imports have climbed to a new annual high in just the first 10 months of the year, data showed Sunday, due to what market observers here called growing consumer exposure to foreign delicacies amid a continued surge in the number of people going abroad.
  

In the January-October period, the country imported some $118 million worth of beer, already surpassing the annual total of 2014, when beer imports surged to a record high of $112 million, according to the data from the Korea International Trade Association.
  

The 10-month tally also marks a 26.9 percent spike from the same period last year.
  

The country's beer imports have been growing steadily since 2010, posting an annual growth of between 17.7 percent and 33.6 percent.
  

"A growing number of people are looking for the same beer they have tasted while traveling abroad, which has also apparently led a rise in the number of brands imported," said an official from a beer importer.
  

In 2014, 14.2 million South Koreans traveled abroad, a 16.6 percent on-year gain and an astonishing 61.4 percent spike from just four years earlier when only 8.8 million Koreans visited other countries, according to the Korea National Tourism Organization.
  

Japan took the largest share of South Korea's imported beer market, shipping some $34 million worth of beer to the country in the first 10 months of the year.
  

Germany came next with $16 million worth of beer shipped to South Korea over the cited period, followed by Ireland with $13 million and China with $12 million.
  

Beer imports from France are also on a sharp rise, jumping more than fifteenfold in just two years from $130,000 in 2013 to $2 million in the January-October period, according to the data. (Yonhap)