South Korea’s coffee imports in 2024 nearly reached $1.4 billion.
According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) on Tuesday, South Korea’s coffee import value last year was $1.378 billion, an 11% increase from $1.242 billion in 2023.
The coffee category includes green coffee beans, roasted beans, coffee concentrates, and instant coffee.
The 2024 figure shows an increase of over $500 million compared to 2020 when coffee imports were valued at $850 million. However, it fell short of the all-time high of $1.44 billion recorded in 2022.
In 2024, the import volume of coffee reached 215,838 tons, a 4.8% increase from the previous year’s 205,884 tons.
The higher growth in import value compared to volume is attributed to the rise in coffee bean prices in 2024.
This price surge was mainly due to extreme weather conditions in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s top coffee producers. By the end of 2024, the price of Arabica coffee reached its highest level in over 50 years.
For the first time, the number of coffee shops in South Korea exceeded 100,000, reaching 100,729 by the end of 2022. Low-cost coffee brands, in particular, are rapidly increasing their presence.
According to Euromonitor, South Koreans consumed an average of 405 cups of coffee per person in 2023, 2.7 times the global average of 152 cups per person annually.
