<Anchor>
Friendly Economy Today (22nd) for the second time, we are with reporter Kim Hye-min.
Reporter Kim, everyone is saying that it is difficult due to the prolonged Corona 19. At this point, there are products that export very well?
<Reporter>
Yes, although Corona 19 is so serious, there is a Korean product that has been exported enormously overseas this year.
This is Korea's instant ramen, and this year's exports alone amounted to 660 billion won, an increase of nearly 30% over last year.
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to last longer than expected even abroad.
Foreigners would also need emergency food that can be bought and stored for a long time, and that is easy to make and eat, so they have bought a lot of Korean ramen.
In addition to this, Korean movies and dramas became very popular overseas this year.
The scene of eating chapaguri in the movie'Parasite' is so famous that everyone will remember it.
This shift of interest in K-culture to food has had a big impact on raising the exports of ramen.
<Anchor> In
which country did it sell so much?
<Reporter>
Yes, 1 out of 4 ramen exported from Korea was sold in China.
The next most sold countries were the United States and Japan, followed by Thailand and the Philippines.
It was especially this June.
There is a product review site in the New York Times in the United States, where a Korean ramen was selected as the world's most delicious ramen.
In addition, the exports of ramen I have described so far do not include the sales of Korean companies after making ramen at a local factory in a foreign country.
So, if you add up the sales of local production, Korean ramen is sold abroad.
It seems that Korean ramen wasn't only delicious for Korean people.
<Anchor> All
tastes will be the same, and it's an everlasting match for ramen.
You said the exports of kimchi also hit a record high?
<Reporter>
Yes, kimchi is a famous fermented food.
It seems that it is well known abroad that it is good for immunity in the situation of Corona 19.
Kimchi also recorded the highest exports this year. In the past, the year that kimchi sold the most was 2012.
This is already eight years ago, and this time it broke this record.
Japan is the most exported country, and half of the exported kimchi is sold in Japan.
However, there is a country that is terribly catching up with this Japanese sales.
It's an American. The amount of exports to the United States this year has nearly doubled compared to last year.
Currently, it is said that you can easily buy Korean kimchi even if you go to a supermarket in the US.
<Anchor>
By the way.
In Korean restaurants, kimchi is often made in China.
Rather, isn't it that Koreans eat more Chinese kimchi?
<Reporter>
Yes, that's a shame.
The amount of kimchi that Koreans import and eat is much greater than the amount exported abroad.
Last year, the export volume of kimchi was about 58,000 tons, but the import volume was 36,000 tons, five times more than this.
Last year, imports were nearly six times larger than exports.
Then, in which country will kimchi imported into Korea come from?
As you might guess, 99% are made in China.
On the other hand, the exports and imports of kimchi are the same, so the imports are five times larger, but if you compare them by the amount, they are similar.
High-quality Korean kimchi is exported overseas, which means that we are eating cheap Chinese kimchi.
Most of the kimchi made in China is sold at restaurants, because it is much cheaper to buy and eat Chinese kimchi than to make it yourself.
It seems that such measures to increase the price and quality competitiveness of domestic kimchi must come out quickly.