South Korea’s food and agriculture exports rose more than 11 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2012 on solid demand in the United States, Japan and China, the government said Tuesday.

In the January-March period, South Korea shipped $1.82 billion worth of farm products, up 11.2 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The growth was largely led by an increase in shipments of fresh produce and fishery products, which rose 27.5 percent and 13.5 percent on-year, respectively.

Exports of processed food products also rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said.

“The first quarter export gain is noteworthy because it was achieved despite sluggish global growth that hurt trade,” a ministry official said.

By nation, exports to the United States jumped 17.3 percent on-year to $156.5 million with Japan, the world’s largest importer of South Korean food products, purchasing $555.8 million worth of products, up 15.0 percent from the same period in 2011.

Shipments to China rose 13.6 percent to $294.6 million, with exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gaining 8.1 percent on-year to $251.2 million.

South Korea aims to export over $10 billion worth of farm, fishery and food products this year from a record $7.7 billion reached in 2011. 

(Yonhap News)