South Korea's food and agricultural exports surpassed the US$5 billion mark earlier than expected this year on solid overseas demand from China and other Asian countries, a government report showed Monday.

   The country's exports of such products reached an accumulative $5.29 billion in the January-September period, up 30.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

   This year's performance was better than last year as the country's food and agricultural exports topped the $5 billion mark in November last year, it said.

   Korea's exports of agricultural goods to China accounted for 57.8 percent of the total for September, followed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with 47.5 percent, according to the ministry.

Source: Yonhap News (Oct. 10, 2011)