Browse Data and Analysis

On December 22, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed Executive Order No. 50 (EO 50) extending lower tariffs on pork, corn, and rice for another year or until December 31, 2024. EO 50 was published on December 26, 2023, and took effect immediately upon publication.

On November 14, 2023, Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) released its final estimate of 2023 rice production at 3.7 million metric tons (MMT), up an additional 0.5 percent from the initial rice production estimates released in early October and down 1.6 percent overall from the prior year.

In 2023, the Korean government implemented three rounds of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for various imported agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, including new TRQs to stabilize food prices.

As the 5th largest country export market for the United States, Korea provides a promising market for U.S. agricultural products. In 2022, Korea imported about $50 billion agricultural and food products from all over the world and the U.S. supplied a fifth of it, ranking number one. Other key suppliers were China, Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand.

FAS Manila maintains its September 2023 forecast for rice and corn production and imports, but lowers its forecast slightly for wheat imports to 6.0 million metric tons.

Already reeling from high fruit prices, Korean consumers will face another year of expensive, lower-quality apples. Korea’s apple production for marketing year (MY) 2023/24 fell 25 percent year-on-year after orchards suffered a series of adverse weather events in 2023.

Ample opportunities exist for U.S. agricultural exports to South Korea. Highlighted in the chart above, U.S. agricultural product exports were a record $9.5 billion in 2022, up 2 percent from 2021. South Korea is the sixth largest export market for the United States, thanks in part to a successful free trade agreement (KORUS) between the two countries and a robust demand for high-quality U.S. food products.

The Philippines is expected to experience economic growth between 2025 and 2070, due to a shift in its demographics, necessitating a robust and efficient food distribution system.

Korea has not finalized the May 2021 revisions of its Living Modified Organism (LMO) Act, which defines Korea’s regulatory policies for products developed through innovative technologies including genome editing.

On August 23, 2023, the Philippine Department of Agriculture issued Memorandum Circular No. 37 (2023), an Addendum to the Bureau of Animal Industry Memorandum Circular No. 26 (2021), which requires traders to submit a Feed Utilization Report and...

The Philippines has been a pioneer within Asia in adopting biotechnology crops, and recently approved Bt cotton as the 4th genetically engineered (GE) crop cleared for commercial propagation after corn (2002), rice (2021), and eggplant (2022). The...