SEOUL: South Koreans, who traditionally eat most meals with a generous dollop of the fiery local side dish kimchi, are gaining a growing taste for another imported fermented food: cheese.
While Japan is by far the biggest consumer of cheese in Asia, neighbouring South Korea is one of the fastest-growing markets, and top suppliers such as the United States and New Zealand hope to sell even more as free trade deals cut tariffs.
Cheese demand has been helped by increased exposure to western dishes such as pizza, but South Koreans also often incorporate it into local dishes ranging from noodle soup to kimchi stir-fried rice.
“I try to sprinkle cheese even on Korean food,” said Lee Mi-ji, a 31-year-old office worker, who initially started eating cheese with wine. Cheese consumption has soared by a third in the last five years and annual imports are now worth nearly $US500 million ($A711.90 million).
“People are familiar with fermented food such as kimchi, soybean and chilly paste. Cheese is also fermented. So, I think they are getting used to it fast,” said Hwang Keum-taek, a food and nutrition professor at Seoul National University.
As in other parts of Asia, dairy products have been less popular partly due to many South Koreans having difficulty digesting lactose, the sugar found in milk. But cheese is tolerated better as it contains less lactose. “Cheese reduces the spicy taste in lots of Korean food. Students often put string cheese in ramen,” said Se-jun Kim, a spokesman at Korea’s Maeil Dairies Co, referring to a type of mozzarella added to noodle soups.
South Korean cheese imports jumped 60 per cent between 2010 and 2014 to 97,000 tonnes, while Japan’s imports rose 17 per cent to 232,000 tonnes over the period, according to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data.
Separate data on China was not available, but Euromonitor International expects its cheese market to jump 23 per cent to 3.5 billion yuan ($550.54 million) this year. “Korea is still at a beginning stage in terms of product variety and consumption patterns,” said a USDA report, noting consumption was dominated by processed sliced cheese and shredded mozzarella.
South Koreans are now consuming 2.AK per person, according to industry data, but that is only about a tenth of the cheese consumed in France. Demand for cheese has doubled to 117,800 tonnes a year, largely met by imports, as local production has been broadly unchanged in the past decade at around 23,000 tonnes.
South Korea is now the world’s fifth-biggest importer, with the US supplying 53 per cent of imports in the first nine months of 2015, New Zealand 13 per cent and the rest from Germany, France and others, according to customs data.
“Sales of our food service products such as mozzarella cheese are performing strongly due to growing demand from Korea’s bakery, fast-food and pre-prepared meal categories,” said Kelvin Wickham, Managing Director of Global Ingredients at NZ’s Fainter Co-Operative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter.
Suppliers such Fainter see increased export potential under the NZ-Korea free trade agreement which will see import tariffs of up to 36 per cent phased out in the next decade or so. South Korea also has free trade deals with the US and Europe. Yet some South Koreans have concerns about the expense and even the health implications of eating more cheese.
