South Korea's beer exports hit a record high last year on the back of popularity of the Korean Wave, customs data showed on Tuesday. Beer exports reached a fresh high of 84.46 million U.S. dollars in 2015, up 15.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Customs Service (KCS).
It surpassed the previous high of 73. 18 million dollars tallied in 2014. During the three-year period through 2015, South Korea's overall exports declined 5.9 percent, but beer exports jumped 16.9 percent. Strong demand continued this year.
For the first seven months of this year, beer exports gained 3.7 percent compared with the same period of last year. Brisk shipments were attributed to higher popularity of South Korean dramas, some of which showed actors drinking beer together with fried chicken.
Beer shipments to China's Hong Kong reached 35 million U.S. dollars in 2015, accounting for 41.6 percent of the total. It was followed by the Chinese mainland which took up 22.9 percent of total beer exports. Exports of beer to Iraq ranked third with a share of 8.6 percent, and Singapore came next with a portion of 8.0 percent.
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