Top Figures on Wine Imports in Korea
While still a niche, the wine market is rapidly growing especially in the young population.
While still a niche, the wine market is rapidly growing especially in the young population. Since 2011, the wine import in Korea is on a constantly growing trend with 113M$ of wine imports from all origins. Additionally, since 2020, the market has skyrocketed from 330M$ in 2020 to +80% by October 2021 year-on-year reaching an all-time-high of 458M$ for wines of all origins. The trend for French wines is even higher growing from 43M$ in 2011 to 93M$ in 2020 and 145M$ by October 2021 (+102% y-o-y).
With 145M$ in October 2021, French wines represent the #1 origin of wine imports in Korea, far ahead of the US and Italian wines with 74M$ each, Chile wines with 63M$ and Spanish wines with 35M$.
Out of this total of 145M$, two trends stand out. Non-sparkling wines represent 70% of the market share of French wines in Korea with a total of 102M$ (+113% y-o-y) while Champagne and sparkling wines represent 29% with 42M$ (+73% y-o-y) and 1.9M litres imported between January and October 2021 at an average of 23$ per litre. Among non-sparkling wines, red wines represent 72% of the market share with 74M$ (+114% y-o-y) and 6.6M litres imported at an average of 11$ per litre, while white wines account for 123,5% with 24M$ (+112% y-o-y) and 2M litres imported at an average of 12$ per litre.
