Sesame oil is emerging as a new export star amid the K-food craze, with transformers and music albums also showing rising export performance.
According to the Korea Customs Service on Tuesday, sesame oil exports reached $6.14 million (about 9.2 billion won) in January-April this year, up 37.0% from a year earlier. Export volume also rose 47.6% to 657 tons. Both export value and volume marked all-time highs for the period.
Sesame oil exports have shown double-digit growth for two consecutive years, rising 20.3% in 2024 ($13.01 million) and 28.2% last year ($16.68 million), and the steep climb has continued this year. The largest market was the United States, accounting for 41.7%, or $2.6 million, of total exports, followed by Canada, Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands.
"Demand for K-sesame oil, which is minimally heat-treated and free of chemical additives, has grown amid consumer trends in advanced economies favoring vegetarian and healthy diets," the Korea Customs Service said. "Adding sesame oil at the end of cooking Korean dishes such as bibimbap has been embraced as a natural food culture, similar to drizzling olive oil or dressing on salads or fish dishes in Western diets."
Foreigners who have encountered Korean recipes through K-content are increasingly trying to cook at home and purchasing essential sauces alongside, according to the analysis. While ramen and seaweed previously dominated K-food exports, the product mix has recently diversified into sauces.
Gochujang exports also rose 2.1% year-on-year to $22.9 million during the same period. Double-digit growth was seen in China (27.3%), Canada (33.1%) and the Netherlands (36.4%). Gochujang exports first surpassed $60 million in 2023, then continued to grow to $62 million in 2024 and $64 million last year.
In industrial goods, large industrial transformers are emerging as a new export item. The trend reflects growing demand for equipment that stably supplies and converts large-capacity power, as artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, aging power grid replacements and semiconductor plant expansions are proceeding simultaneously around the world. Transformers are key equipment that adjusts the voltage of power supplied from power plants or transmission grids to suit users such as factories and data centers.
Industrial transformer exports (capacity exceeding 500 kVA) jumped about 58% year-on-year to $96.8 million in January-April. During the same period, transformer exports stood at $47.7 million in 2023, $61.8 million in 2024 and $61.2 million last year. On an annual basis, industrial transformer exports slowed from $169.2 million in 2023 to $151.3 million in 2024 but jumped to $217 million last year. The January-April export value alone has already approached half of last year's full-year total.
K-pop is also driving exports of physical albums (CDs) in the digital streaming era. Album exports surged 131.8% year-on-year to $160 million in January-April. The growth reflects the global spread of K-pop fandom along with rising analog demand amid fatigue from digital saturation, according to analysts.
