SEOUL – South Korea’s instant noodle exports touched an all-time high in the first half of the year amid the coronavirus pandemic, reported Yonhap news agency today, citing data.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy exported US$319.68 million (RM1.35 billion) worth of instant noodles, or “ramyeon” in Korean, in the January-June period, up 5.8% from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.
The amount was above the previous first-half record of US$302.08 million set a year earlier.
Yet the rate was well lower than the 37.4% surge during the first half of last year due mainly to a 15.8% on-year fall in shipments to China, the largest export destination.
According to market watchers, other reasons for the slowdown include the so-called base effect and South Korea’s export bottlenecks stemming from a shipping container shortage.
The solid first-half gain was attributed to the global popularity of Korean-made instant noodles as an emergency food in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that has forced people to stay home.
Also responsible were strong overseas shipments of Chapaguri, a signature noodle dish from the Oscar-winning film “Parasite” and a mixture of Chapaghetti, instant black bean noodles, and Neoguri, spicy Korean udon-like noodles.
China was the largest overseas market in the first half, with exports reaching US$68.13 million.
The United States came next with US$37.3 million, followed by Japan with U$33.02 million, Taiwan with U$16.21 million and the Philippines with U$12.05 million.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s instant noodle imports came to U$4.69 million in the six-month period, according to the data. – Bernama, July 26, 2021
