South Korea looks to export strawberries to other Asian nations after successful Singapore pilot

South Korea is looking to export its strawberries to other Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam after a successful pilot with export flights to Singapore.

Since December 2020, South Korea has conducted 88 flights with a frequency of four times a week for five months to export some 960 tons of strawberries to Singapore.

It covered around 91 percent of South Korea's total strawberry exports.

The local Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) piloted the strawberry-only export flights to Singapor after the pandemic left South Korea's strawberry industry struggling to sell its products or get them overseas.

Consequently, South Korea's strawberry exports to Singapore increased from around US$12.5 million between December 2019 and April 2020 to around US$15.2 million between December 2020 and April 2021 despite the pandemic,​ according to MAFRA.

MAFRA now plans to expand its premium export market targets to include more Asian countries.

The strategy could also boost local incomes as it eases the burden of transportation costs and expenses for both farmers and exporting firms.​

South Korea has been suffering from a series of bad weather events that culminated in a shortage of various food items and pushing prices up.

As such, local demand for expensive fruits such as premium strawberries is unlikely to increase any time soon, prompting the industry to seek new markets willing to pay a premium such as Hong Kong and Thailand.