S. Korea's coffee imports increased by 24 per cent as the demand surged
March 22 - 2022
Coffee Geography Magazine
South Korea's coffee imports reached a new high up 24 percent from a year earlier. According to the data from Korean Customs Service and Industry source, the country's coffee import trade is now reached over $900 million. There are over 83,000 coffee shops in the country including 25,000 shops in Seoul alone, making the capital city’s coffee consumption greater than that of Seattle or San Francisco with annual 353 cups per person.
Switzerland was the largest exporter of coffee products to South Korea with $130.1 million, followed by Colombia with $128.2 million, Brazil with $112.2 million and Ethiopia with $75.7 million in 2021. The instant coffee market still takes the largest percentage of the total coffee consumption in Korea where many well-known brands compete for the market share. However, with the introduction of big coffee chains like Starbucks, in the late 1990s which introduced freshly brewed coffee with different blending styles, and Covid 19 in 2019/20 that forced home brewing on million of drinkers make the coffee culture evolving to a new dimension.