SEOUL: South Korea’s seafood imports rose 10.5% in 2017, from a year earlier, on growing demand for foreign shrimp and salmon citing the country’s maritime ministry.
South Korea imported $5.14 billion worth of seafood, with the total volume hitting 1.48 million metric tons.
Sales of shrimp jumped 17.3% as various kinds of fresh and frozen products emerged as increasingly popular ingredients at local restaurants, and in various processed food products.
Salmon sales grew by 15.2% on strong demand for products from the Atlantic Ocean.
Inbound shipments of squid jumped 33.5% in 2017 as the domestic catch shrank due to overfishing by Chinese trawlers in the East Sea, the ministry claimed.
