Greece holds a 75% dominant share in the canned peach market in South Korea
Our country holds a dominant share of 75% in the canned peach market in South Korea, having almost completely marginalized the traditional competitors of the countries (China, South Africa, Chile) joined in the existing share to show upward trends. This is noted in the “Peach Canned Market Research 2021” of the Office of Economic and Commercial Affairs, Seoul.
According to the research, the pandemic did not affect the dynamics of Greek exports to this country in the past year. On the contrary, in 2020, our exports reached historically high levels of 6,400 tons worth 7.15 million US dollars. (increase of 40.9% compared to 2019).
As noted, canned fruit is a particularly popular product for consumers in South Korea. only favorable consequences for Greek exports.
More analytically, it is mentioned that Greece has all the conditions to dominate the Korean market of canned peaches in the coming years. In fact, the main problem facing Greek exports today is the lack of sometimes sufficient numbers of inputs in our country to serve our exporters, and of course the large increase in shipping tariffs due to a pandemic, as it is a product with low profit margins. in which overall profitability is directly related to the volume of exports.
In order to further strengthen our position in the Korean market, it is estimated that more Greek companies have been active in the industry, which should send export managers to Korea at least twice to explore the market and hold targeted corporate meetings to assist and ISD Seoul Office.
Particular attention, as noted, should also be sent to ensure quality control procedures and the decision of unfair competition between Greek companies to the detriment of the admittedly high quality of the product and the corresponding exposure it enjoys in the demanding Korean market.
According to the data, during the pandemic year 2020, the exported quantities increased by 35.8% (from 4,708 to 6,395 tons) and their value by 40.9% (from 5.1 to 7.15 million US dollars. Π.Α.).
In terms of competition:
– China is following a steady downward trend, as it can not compete with Greece either in quality or -additionally- in price, since it was forced to pay the entire import duty of 50%. It maintains a smaller and shrinking market share of 6.3%, which mainly concerns frozen peaches that enter Korea and are packaged here.
– South Africa is essentially out of the market, as it has high quality but the producer price is higher than the Greek and at the same time the product is subject to the import duty of 50%, as the country has not concluded a free trade agreement with South Korea.
– Chile is also completely out of the market, despite its Free Trade Agreement with Korea, the quality of the product is clearly lower than the Greek one.
– Thailand, similarly shows significant exports to Korea (31.5% of the market) does not really have its own peach production. It is a substance for peaches, primarily from Greece and, secondarily, from China, which enter processed and packaged in Korea by the company Dole.
– There are limited imports from France (747 thousand US dollars), Spain (690 thousand US dollars) and Italy (322 thousand US dollars).