South Korea's agricultural and fisheries exports to the United States are on a steep increase, data showed Saturday, an apparent indication of the benefits from the bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries that went into effect four years ago.

In the first four months of the year, shipments of South Korean agricultural and fisheries goods to the U.S. came to 310 million, up 9.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the data from the Los Angeles branch of the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp.

The increase marks the second-highest on-year rise after a 42.9 percent spike in shipments to the United Arab Emirates.

The rise also comes amid a continued slump in South Korea's overall exports, which have fallen every single month since the start of 2015.

Such an increase in shipments of farmed products apparently helped keep South Korea's overall exports to the U.S. growing.

In May, South Korea's exports to the U.S. gained 0.7 percent on-year, while its overall global shipments declined 6 percent.

The growth in shipments of farmed goods to the U.S. was partly helped by a large increase in seeds, part of which found their way to Mexico, with which South Korea has yet to sign an FTA, according to AT officials here.

The Korea-U.S. FTA, commonly known as the KORUS FTA, went into effect in March 2012. (Yonhap)