SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – South Koreans’ rice consumption fell to a record low in 2025 as changing diets and eating habits continued to reduce demand, government data showed Thursday. Per capita rice consumption stood at 62.5 kilograms last year, down 3 percent, or 1.9 kg, from the previous year, according to the data [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – American beef and pork products accounted for the largest share in South Korea’s imported meat market last year, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) said Monday. In 2025, Korea imported a total of 468,122 tons of beef products, with U.S. beef taking up 220,427 tons, or 47.1 percent of [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea will import 2.24 million fresh eggs from the United States this month to help stabilize domestic egg prices amid the recent spread of highly contagious avian influenza (AI), the agriculture ministry said Wednesday. The eggs will be purchased by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp., and [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The oceans ministry said Tuesday it plans to expand imports of mackerel through the tariff-rate quota system and release government reserves amid soaring prices. Starting this month, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it plans to release 2,000 tons of mackerel from its stockpiles with a 30 to [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will allow foreign aquaculture technicians to work across a broader range of farmed species starting this year, as the government moves to ease chronic labor shortages in the country’s aging fisheries sector. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Ministry of Justice said Monday that the scope [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s most familiar fish may soon become a luxury item. Mackerel, a staple of the Korean diet, is facing mounting supply pressures as climate change shrinks domestic catches and Norway — the country’s dominant foreign supplier — moves to sharply cut its harvest. The combined squeeze is already pushing [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Senior South Korean officials on Monday pledged to speed the adoption of artificial intelligence across the agriculture and food sectors, positioning so-called “physical A.I.” as a key response to rural labor shortages and an aging farming population. Bae Kyung-hoon, the deputy prime minister and minister of science and information and [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The government said Monday it plans to launch an information and price comparison platform for agricultural products that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) next year as part of its broader effort to adopt AI-based public services. At the inaugural meeting of a new government consultation group consisting of [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of coffee beans jumped sharply from a year earlier in 2024, with imports this year widely expected to reach an all-time high, customs data showed Thursday. Imports of coffee beans, including both raw and roasted products, came to US$1.24 billion last year, up 13 percent from $1.1 billion the previous year, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is facing intensifying “agflation,” as surging agricultural prices add new pressure to household costs and expose deep structural weaknesses in the nation’s farming and distribution systems. Consumer prices for agricultural, livestock and fisheries products jumped 4.8 percent in August from a year earlier, the sharpest increase in [...]