Overview
South Korea's (Republic of Korea's) export-oriented economy
supports a relatively affluent society of 48 million people.
Rugged mountains
cover much of the country, leaving a relatively small arable land
area for food production. Rice dominates crop production and
has
long been the staple food. Production of vegetables, fruit, and
livestock grew over the last three decades, but Korea has turned
increasingly to food imports to satisfy consumers' demands for
greater food variety, lower prices, and convenience. South Korea
is among
the top ten markets for U.S. agricultural exports. Several trade
disputes reflect the country's strong drive for self-sufficiency.
ERS analyzes important aspects of Korea's food and agricultural
situation, its agricultural trade, and issues affecting U.S.
agricultural
trade.
Feature
Where
Will Demographics Take the Asia-Pacific Food System? (June
2004) assesses the impact of expanded urbanization, variability
in population growth and immigration, and aging populations
on the Asia-Pacific food system. The ability of developing
countries to adjust to rapid urbanization will be the most
important demographic challenge, testing the region's capacity
to deliver a steady flow of safe, reasonably priced food.
Recommended Readings
Many factors determine the Structure
of the Global Markets for Meat, (September 2003) including
the relative availability of resources for raising and processing
animals for meat. Countries' preferences for various cuts of
meat provide opportunities for international trade. South Korea
has been one of the largest markets for U.S. meat exports.
International Evidence on
Food Consumption Patterns (October 2003) analyzes expenditures
across 114 countries on major consumption categories, including
food and different food subcategories. Results indicate
poorer countries are more responsive to price and income
changes and also allocate larger shares of their total budget
to necessities such as food.
Structural Change and Agricultural
Protection: Costs of Korean Agricultural Policy, 1975 and
1990
(April 2002) provides an overview of South Korea's agricultural
policy goals and outcomes in a period of rapid economic development.
Protection
of agriculture skewed farmers' choices of crops and tended to keep
labor in agriculture (and out of manufacturing and services),
resulting
in misallocation of resources. Despite the sharp decline of agriculture's
importance in Korea's general economy, high import barriers continued,
incurring greater costs to the economy in 1990 than in 1975.
See all recommended readings...
Recommended Data Products
Production, Supply, and Distribution (PS&D)
contains official USDA data on production, supply, and distribution
of agricultural commodities for the United States and
major importing and exporting countries. The database provides
projections for the coming year and historical data for more
than 200 countries and major crop, livestock, fishery, and forest products.
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United
States (FATUS) provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports,
volume and value, by country, by commodity, and by calendar year,
fiscal year, and month, for varying periods, such as 1935 to the
present or 1989 to the present. Updated monthly or annually.
WTO Agricultural Trade
Policy Commitments Database contains data on implementation
of trade policy commitments by WTO member countries. Data on domestic
support, export subsidies, and tariffs are organized for comparison
across countries. This queriable database offers various options
for viewing and downloading data.
Agricultural Market Access Database
(AMAD) is a publicly available information tool for analyzing WTO
market access issues in agriculture. It contains data and information
for WTO member countries, including tariff schedules, tariff bindings,
applied tariff rates, country notifications to the WTO, import quantities,
and other data useful in tariff analysis.
Related Briefing Rooms
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Agricultural Baseline Projections
U.S. Agricultural Trade
Related Links
Additional data and information on South Korea are available from
USDA, other U.S. government sources, international organizations,
Korea's government, and other sources.
See all related links...
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