South Korea's exports of food and agriculture products shrank slightly from a year earlier last month amid large drops in shipments to China and European countries, the government said Wednesday.

In January, outbound shipments of farm products amounted to $445.9 million, down 1.5 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

"The drop in exports last month appears to have been caused by shrinking shipments of ginseng, sugar and processed coffee products that together make up a large part of exports," the ministry said in a press release.

Shipments of ginseng were more than halved from $10.4 million in January 2013 to $4.3 million last month.

Overall, shipments of fresh foodstuffs, such as vegetables, plunged 12.2 percent on-year to $77.5 million while those of processed goods edged up 1.1 percent to $368.4 million.

By country, shipments to China, the world's second-largest importer of South Korean foodstuffs, plunged 32.5 percent on-year to $58.6 million with exports to the European Union also dropping 28.6 percent to $18.8 million.

Shipments to the United States, on the other hand, surged 10.8 percent to $41.9 million with those to Japan, the world's single largest importer of South Korea products, growing 8.7 percent to $114.4 million. (Yonhap)