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Korea - Republic Of > East Asia and the Pacific + South Korea

In September 2024, a National Assembly member submitted a draft revision of the Act on Transboundary Movements of Living Modified Organisms, commonly referred to as the LMO Act.

Korea’s wine import sector has been undergoing a stabilizing phase since the explosive growth around 2021. In 2023, wine imports reached 506 million USD, down 12.9 percent from the previous year, totaling 56.5 million kg, a decrease of 20.4 percent compared to 2022.

Korea’s fresh pear production is projected to rise by 10.2 percent to 202,000 metric tons (MT) in marketing year (MY) 2024/25, helped by favorable weather and lower incidences of diseases and pests compared to the previous year.

Market share of U.S. corn in South Korea is expected to remain strong in MY 2024/25 after rebounding to 20 percent in MY 2023/24. Domestic rice production continues its slow decline as the government incentivizes farmers to switch to planting alternate crops.

Honduras has made no modifications to its existing regulatory framework regarding genetically engineered (GE) crops. As of October 2024, planted area of GE corn in Honduras has increased by 29 percent from the previous year, rising from 52,000 to 67,000 hectares. In 2024, the National Committee on Biotechnology and Biosecurity approved six events.

Korean seafood imports totaled $5.93 billion in 2023, down 8.3 percent from 2022. Korean 2023 seafood imports from the United States totaled $203 million, a decrease of 11.4 percent year-to-year.

The National Plant, Animal Health and Food Safety Service (SENASA) is the regulatory agency in Honduras that is responsible for the inspection of all agricultural products that enter the country.

SENASA and ARSA have made significant progress in expediting import procedures with the introduction of online options for requesting import permits and sanitary authorizations of imported raw materials that provide immediate electronic delivery to ports of entry.

FAS/Seoul forecasts Korea’s 2025 milk production to decrease to 1.92 million tons. Korean milk production continues to decline in line with industry contraction and demographic-driven consumption declines.

Korea was the 5th largest country importer of the U.S. agricultural and related products in 2023. The United States is the leading supplier of imported consumer-oriented agricultural products for Korean retail industry, shipping $4.9 billion in 2023.

In 2023, Honduras’s consumer-oriented imports from the United States reached $553 million, making it the second-largest importer in Central America, after Guatemala.