SEOUL, Jan 25 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- South Korea imported over 2 trillion won (US$1.38 billion) worth of coffee last year, breaching the 2 trillion-won mark for the first time in its history largely due to a hike in global prices and a weak Korean won, data showed Sunday.
Coffee imports amounted to 2.65 trillion won last year, up 41 per cent from 2024, according to the data from the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp., as reported by Yonhap News Agency.
In dollars, the country's coffee imports jumped 35 per cent year-on-year to US$1.86 billion from US$1.38 billion over the cited period.
The sharp increase was largely attributed to recent hikes in global prices of coffee, which reached a record high of over US$4 per pound in February 2025 before dropping to around US$3.5.
The weak local currency also pushed up the won-denominated amount of coffee imports, as the Korean won had weakened to multi-year lows throughout last year.
In terms of volume, imports of coffee dipped 46 tonnes from a year earlier to 215,792 tonnes in 2025, according to the data.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
