Asia · East Asia
🇰🇷 Korea (South)Protein Intelligence
South Korea is a high-value protein import market with strong demand for premium beef from Australia and the US, and growing appetite for Brazilian poultry. Lotte Food, CJ CheilJedang, and Dongwon Group are the dominant domestic food companies. ASF (African Swine Fever) outbreaks periodically disrupt domestic pork supply.
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Trade Flows
PROTEINSPorkPoultryBeefSeafood
TRADE BLOCSRCEPKORUS FTAKAUSFTA
ANIMSTOK MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Deterministic editorial summary — not AI-generated
South Korea is a high-income protein import market with strong demand for premium beef and growing halal protein re-export flows to the Middle East.
South Korea imports approximately 70% of its beef, split between Australian and US origins. CJ CheilJedang, Dongwon Group, and Lotte Food are the leading domestic protein companies. Domestic pork production (Hanwoo and commercial crossbred) competes with imported frozen pork from Canada and Spain. Korean consumers pay among the highest premiums for traceable, branded protein in Asia — a positioning opportunity for premium exporters.
High-Value Import Market
WHAT TO WATCH
KORUS FTA beef tariff schedule
US beef tariff in South Korea has been eliminated — Australia and US now compete duty-free; relative price competitiveness is driven purely by production costs and exchange rates
ASF status in South Korea's domestic pig sector
South Korea has had recurring ASF outbreaks in its northern provinces — domestic supply disruptions create import demand spikes for pork
KEY BENCHMARKS
KAMIS Meat Price Index
Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation
TRADE & PRODUCTION DATA
Source: USDA FAS PSD · FAO FAOSTAT · MLA · NSC · VASEP (public datasets)
Medium Energy Exposure
South Korea is LNG-dependent for electricity generation, making processing and refrigeration costs sensitive to global gas prices. As primarily a protein importer, the dominant energy exposure is in source-country production costs rather than domestic processing. Domestic pork (Hanwoo) production has moderate gas exposure through shed heating in cold Korean winters.
Beef
Import000 MT
520 ↑
2026E
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
392
441
488
483
495
510
520
KAMIS / USDA FAS
Pork
Import000 MT
740 ↑
2026E
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
660
706
735
710
720
730
740
KAMIS / USDA FAS
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What's Changing
No published intelligence events for this country yet. Coverage expanding.
Trade Intelligence
50Korea (South) exported protein commodities to 17 partners in 2025. Imported from 8 sources.
UN Comtrade · Annual bilateral flows · Protein basket (beef, poultry, seafood)
Exports from KR
↑ ExportKR → VN$74.8M
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025prev $72.7M+2.9% YoY
↑ ExportKR → MY$361K
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $8K
↑ ExportKR → LB$167K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025
↑ ExportKR → AL$75K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025
↑ ExportKR → AE$74K
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025
↑ ExportKR → HK$73K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025prev $8K
↑ ExportKR → SL$59K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025
↑ ExportKR → KH$37K
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2024
↑ ExportKR → AG$31K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025
↑ ExportKR → PH$25K
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $1K
↑ ExportKR → MN$18K
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $3K
↑ ExportKR → ID$11K
Crustaceans; live, fresh or chilled, lobsters (Homarus spp.), whether in shell or notHS 030632
2025
↑ ExportKR → TH$7K
Crustaceans; live, fresh or chilled, lobsters (Homarus spp.), whether in shell or notHS 030632
2025
↑ ExportKR → SG$4K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025prev $0K
↑ ExportKR → RU$3K
Meat of sheep or goats; fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0204
2025prev $2K
↑ ExportKR → IQ$1K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025
↑ ExportKR → US$0K
Meat of sheep or goats; fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0204
2025
Imports to KR
↓ ImportAU → KR$1.27B
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $1.02B+24.7% YoY
↓ ImportTH → KR$100.5M
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025prev $61.1M+64.3% YoY
↓ ImportNZ → KR$89.6M
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $76.7M+16.7% YoY
↓ ImportCA → KR$73.9M
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $28.0M
↓ ImportMX → KR$2.4M
Meat of bovine animals; frozenHS 0202
2025prev $7.6M-68.8% YoY
↓ ImportAR → KR$78K
Meat and edible offal of poultry; of the poultry of heading no. 0105, (i.e. fowls of the species Gallus domesticus), fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0207
2025prev $198K-60.6% YoY
↓ ImportNL → KR$37K
Meat of sheep or goats; fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0204
2025prev $41K-10.1% YoY
↓ ImportBR → KR$2K
Meat of sheep or goats; fresh, chilled or frozenHS 0204
2025
Source: UN Comtrade Database · Annual bilateral trade flows · USD at time of export
Browse all trade flows →Companies
1Documents / Evidence
No published documents linked to this country yet.
Key Protein Categories
Pork
Poultry
Beef
Seafood
Brands (0)
No published brands linked to this country yet.
Facilities (0)
No published facilities in this country yet.
Global Market Context
Global indices · not country-specific
FAO Food Price Index133.3
index (2014-2016=100)2026-08FAO
FAO Meat Price Index127.9
index (2014-2016=100)2026-08FAO
FAO Dairy Price Index119.2
index (2014-2016=100)2026-08FAO
FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index196.9
index (2014-2016=100)2026-08FAO
FAO Cereals Price Index116.3
index (2014-2016=100)2026-08FAO
Data Coverage
HQ companies1
Operating0
Brands0
Facilities0
Events0
Documents0
Trade flows50
Generated 15 Oct 2026, 08:10