South Korea's exports of food and agricultural products rose 24 percent from a year earlier in August on growing demand for the country's high-quality products in China and other Asian countries, the government said Thursday.

   South Korea shipped US$580 million worth of farm, fishery and forestry products in August, compared with $470 million a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

   "The growth rate slightly slowed from the previous month, but exports of all sectors from farm and agricultural industries to forestry and fisheries continued to grow over 20 percent," the ministry said in a press release.

   Shipments of fishery products rose 30.2 percent on-year, the highest monthly growth for the sector this year.

   In the first eight months of this year, overseas shipments of food and agricultural products reached $4.65 billion, up 31.1 percent from the same period last year.

   Japan continued to be the largest customer of South Korean products with over $1.46 billion worth of food and agricultural products shipped there in the January-August period, up 28.3 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said.

   Exports to China surged 58.1 percent to $725 million in the eight-month period with exports to the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also surging 47.4 percent on-year to nearly $640 million.

   The ministry earlier forecast the country's agricultural exports would reach a record high of $7.6 billion this year.

Source: Yonhap News (Sept. 8, 2011)