Publication Date

1-2005

Series Number

Miscellaneous Publication 12/2005

Publisher

Department of Agriculture, Western Australia

City

Perth

ISSN

1447-4980

Abstract

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has a population of 48 million, with 12 million living in the capital of Seoul. The population is highly literate with Korean the main language and English taught widely in schools. South Korea is highly urbanised, with 81 per cent of the population living in urban areas. While there is a strong demand for traditional Korean style foods, there is an increasing trend towards western style products (led by the younger generations) with particular emphasis on healthy/well being products.

The land area covers 99,200 square kilometres (1.4 per cent of the size of Australia). Around 22 per cent of land is used for agriculture, with 13,350 square kilometres irrigated (Figure 1 ). Agriculture production in South Korea includes rice, root crops, barley, vegetables, fruit; cattle, pigs, chickens, milk, eggs; fish (CIA, 2004 ). The average household farm is only 1.45 hectares and more than half of Korea's farmers are in their 60's (USDA 2004a).

South Korea depends on imports for about 70 per cent of its food and feed consumption (USDA 2004a). Despite this it is still one of the most protected agricultural economies in the world. In 2003 South Korea imported AUD 11.3 billion of food and beverage products, tipped to have increased by 8 per cent in 2004. Australia’s share of the imports is about 8.1per cent or AUD $0.7 billion.

Number of Pages

20

Keywords

South Korea, Export markets, Western Australia

Disciplines

Agribusiness | Agricultural Economics | Agriculture | Business

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