South Korea’s food exports to the United States posted the first on-year decline in around two years in July, due to Washington’s sweeping tariff scheme, data showed on Wednesday. The country exported US$139 million worth of agricultural goods and food products to the USย last month, down 6.7 percent from the same month last year, according to the data from the Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Institute.
It marks the first time since May 2023 that the country’s food exports to the USย dropped from a year earlier, reports Yonhap news agency.
By item, shipments of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, one of the key export items, retreated 17.8 percent on-year to $14 million.
Exports of snacks fell by an even greater margin of 25.9 percent to $20 million, while those of sauces and ginseng dipped 7.2 percent and 13.4 percent on-year, respectively.
Cumulative exports to the USย in the January-July period grew 21.3 percent from the same period last year. The growth rate, however, slowed sharply from a 27 percent on-year growth for the January-June period.
Industry officials partly attributed the slowdown to companies securing stocks ahead of Washington’s tariff deadline. The Donald Trump administration had announced plans to levy 15 percent tariffs on all South Korean goods starting Aug. 7.
Such panic buying was particularly noticeable in instantย ramyeon, whose shipments to the USย had spiked 58.7 percent on-year in June.
Food exports could fall even further, as USย consumers reduce spending amid a grim outlook for the country’s economy, market watchers said.
“Local companies operating in the U.S. were unable to avoid the effects from a slowdown in consumer spending,” said analyst Kangย Eun-ji from Korea Investment & Securities Co., noting USย sales of major food companies, such as CJย CheilJedangย Corp., declined in the second quarter.
To address the situation, Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryungย was set to convene a meeting later Wednesday aimed at boosting food exports.
At the meeting, which will be the third of its kind to be held, the minister will outline the government’s support measures for export companies and gather feedback from the firms and other related agencies, the ministry said.