South Korea’s agricultural and fisheries exports have steadily increased during the 10 months of this year, led by a recovery in Japan-bound sales and successful marketing activities in China, the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., or aT, said Thursday.

Korean agricultural and fisheries exports in the January-October period rose 5.9 percent on-year to $7 billion, according to the state-run agency, which promotes local agro-fisheries products.

By category, exports of fresh food rose 6.7 percent on-year to $860 million while processed food exports rose 4.1 percent on-year to $4.43 billion and fisheries exports rose 10.2 percent on-year to $1.75 billion during the cited period. 

Korea’s fresh food exports were mainly propelled by sales of paprika and ginseng to Japan, which had picked up from August due to a stronger yen and renewed local interest in food with health benefits.

Processed food exports were propelled by China which saw successful sales of Korean baby formula and ramyeon noodles -- products which aT had heavily marketed there throughout this year.

By the year-end, aT expects Korea’s net agricultural and fisheries export volume for 2016 will stand at around $8.6 billion, marking a 7.5 percent hike from the $8 billion recorded in 2015.

Of this amount, exports of agricultural products will account for around $6.4 billion, which falls short of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ initial target of $8.1 billion, aT said.

“Rather than hitting a set target, our foremost goal is ensuring that this year’s export volume grows from that of the previous year,” said Baek Jin-seok, director general of aT’s export strategy office.

Looking ahead, aT plans to continue efforts toward developing new agro-fisheries products suitable for exports to different regions as well as expanding into new, untapped markets overseas.

“To lower our dependence on select markets, we are seeking ways to bring Korean agro-fisheries products to new markets in Central and Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and India,” Baek said.

The state-run agro-fisheries promotion agency is also working on devising independent export strategies which are tailored to different markets.

“For example, we do not want to hold a promotional event in the same way for every country. We want to switch up our strategies for each market to better address local needs,” said the aT executive.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)