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.


Woolworths Faces Fresh Class Action Over Alleged Underpayments, Shares Slide
EU Signals Major Shift on 2035 Combustion Engine Ban Amid Auto Industry Pressure
Gold and Silver Prices Dip as Markets Await Key U.S. Economic Data
HSBC’s $13.6 Billion Take-Private Offer for Hang Seng Bank Gains Board Backing
Amazon in Talks to Invest $10 Billion in OpenAI as AI Firm Eyes $1 Trillion IPO Valuation
Bank of Korea Downplays Liquidity’s Role in Weak Won and Housing Price Surge
Blackstone Leads $400 Million Funding Round in Cyera at $9 Billion Valuation
Asian Currencies Slip as Dollar Strengthens; Indian Rupee Rebounds on Intervention Hopes
Oil Prices Rebound as Trump Orders Blockade of Sanctioned Venezuelan Tankers
Sanofi’s Efdoralprin Alfa Gains EMA Orphan Status for Rare Lung Disease
CMOC to Acquire Equinox Gold’s Brazilian Mines in $1 Billion Deal to Expand Precious Metals Portfolio
noyb Files GDPR Complaints Against TikTok, Grindr, and AppsFlyer Over Alleged Illegal Data Tracking.
Bank of Japan Poised for Historic Rate Hike as Inflation Pressures Persist
Dollar Struggles as Markets Eye Key Central Bank Decisions and Global Rate Outlooks
MetaX IPO Soars as China’s AI Chip Stocks Ignite Investor Frenzy
California Jury Awards $40 Million in Johnson & Johnson Talc Cancer Lawsuit
Asian Technology and Chipmaking Stocks Slide as AI Spending Concerns Shake Markets 



