Exports of ramyeon (instant noodles) last year broke the USD 700 million mark for the first time. Shown is a section selling instant noodles at a hypermarket in Seoul. (Yonhap News) 

By Hong Angie

Exports of ramyeon (instant noodles) last year broke the USD 700 million mark for the first time in setting an annual record high. 

Trade statistics of the Korea Customs Service released on Jan. 26 said exports of the food last year reached USD 765.43 million (KRW 945.3 billion), up 13.5% from USD 670 million in 2021.

By country, China imported the most ramyeon with USD 188.92 million, followed by the U.S. with USD 76.16 million, Japan USD 60.63 million, the Philippines USD 31.34 million, Taiwan USD 30.45 million and Malaysia USD 29.52 million.

The export growth is believed to be thanks to people spending a longer time at home due to COVID-19 and the boom in Korean content. For example, the Oscar-winning film "Parasite" in 2020 fueled global interest in the dish "Jjapaguri" made from two ramyeon products: Chapagetti and Neoguri.

Certain manufacturers including Nongshim run factories overseas to produce the food, so the scale of ramyeon sales is higher than what export statistics say.

Also last year, Korea's imports of instant noodles surged 46.4% from 2021.

Such imports more than doubled from USD 4.68 million in 2020 to USD 10.24 million in 2021, apparently fueled by growing demand for a wider variety of instant noodle products.

shong9412@korea.kr