Overseas demand for Korean fruit up sharply in 2009: report

SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Yonhap) -- Overseas demand for South Korean-grown fruit rose
sharply in 2009 mainly due to aggressive marketing in China and Southeast Asia, a
state-run agriculture trade corporation said Friday.
Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. said exports of apples, strawberries, sweet
persimmons and pears all exceeded the US$10 million mark last year.
It said of the four fruit, apple exports soared 113 percent from a year earlier
to $19.63 million.
"Demand for the fruit not only soared in Taiwan which is the largest market, but
in Singapore and China," the corporation said in a statement.
Locally-grown fruit has started to win overseas consumers thanks to superior
taste and well-established quality control.
According to the statement, outbound shipments of strawberries, sweet persimmons
and pears all did well in Southeast Asia and Japan.
Exports of strawberries shot up 65 percent on-year to $19.19 million, with those
of sweet persimmons and pears up 47 percent and 14 percent, respectively.
Exports of sweet persimmons and pears topped $10.88 million and $53.77 million,
respectively, last year.
South Korea saw its exports of food, farm, fisheries products grow to around
$4.81 billion worth last year from $4.49 billion in 2008.
For 2010, Seoul hopes to export at least $6.40 billion worth of farm goods, up 33
percent from a year earlier.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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