Kimchi Conquered the World. Then It Started Coming Home in a Cheaper Jar
South Korean kimchi exports are on track to top 2024's record $163.6 million, yet the country is running a kimchi trade deficit of $22 million as cheap Chinese imports flood its own restaurants.
TL;DR — Korean kimchi is a global hit (exports headed for a fresh record above $163.6M), but a $22M trade deficit shows the country is importing more cheap Chinese kimchi than it ships out.
Walk into a Korean cafeteria and the kimchi on the side of your tray tells two stories at once, though it would never admit to either. One story is triumphant: Korean kimchi is a genuine global export, fermenting its way onto tables from Tokyo to Toronto. The other is quieter and a little awkward: the very dish that is conquering the world's restaurants is increasingly being bought, in bulk, from China — by Korea itself. Both are true. And the place where they meet is the most honest picture of where Korean food actually stands in 2026: adored everywhere, and squeezed at home by the oldest force in the business, price.
Why the cabbage decides everything
Start with the thing nobody puts in a press release, because it explains all the rest: napa cabbage has had a brutal few seasons. Climate-driven heat waves have hammered harvests, and the agriculture ministry has said so plainly, acknowledging "a disruption in cabbage supplies due to climate change and higher shipping costs," The Korea Herald noted. When the price of domestic cabbage spikes, the arithmetic of making kimchi at volume turns ugly fast — and that single line of math quietly governs the entire trade picture below.
The everyday jar is now imported
Here is where the squeeze shows up in the numbers. Over the first ten months of 2025, Korea imported $159.46 million of kimchi — up 3.1 percent — while exporting $137.39 million. That leaves a kimchi trade deficit of $22.07 million, a gap 10.3 percent wider than a year earlier. Almost every dollar of that incoming product is Chinese; in 2024 alone, imports from China hit a record $189.86 million, up 16.1 percent.
| Kimchi trade, Jan–Oct 2025 | Value |
|---|---|
| Exports (global) | $137.39M |
| Imports (mostly China) | $159.46M |
| Deficit | –$22.07M |
The logic behind those figures is unsentimental. Korea's cafeterias, budget restaurants, and food manufacturers increasingly reach for Chinese kimchi because it can land at a fraction of the domestic cost. The premium, hand-packed jars get shipped abroad as a luxury cultural product; the banchan on a 9,000-won lunch tray gets quietly backfilled with imports. It's the same split that shows up in plenty of food categories once they go global — the flagship travels, the commodity fills the gap behind it.
The export story is, genuinely, a triumph
None of which should diminish the win, because it's real. Korean kimchi exports keep climbing. Those same first ten months of 2025 brought $137.39 million in overseas sales, up 2 percent year-on-year, putting the full year on pace to clear the previous record of $163.57 million set in 2024, The Korea Herald reported. And that 2024 mark was itself a high-water moment: 47,100 tons shipped to 95 countries, a 6.9 percent jump in volume, according to The Korea Herald.
The buyers' table is its own little map of soft power. Japan leads at $47.55 million (up 4.4 percent), the United States sits second at $36.01 million, and the most interesting motion is at the edges — Canada surged 17.6 percent. The official framing leans, naturally, into the brand. "We will work to develop the kimchi industry into a future-oriented export sector and help solidify kimchi's place as a global food brand," Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung said, per The Korea Herald.
Not a contradiction — a coming-of-age
It's tempting to file the record exports and the widening import deficit as a paradox, but they aren't. They're two faces of the same fact: demand for kimchi has grown so structural, so taken-for-granted, that even its home market can no longer be fed entirely from home soil. That doesn't puncture the K-food story. If anything it proves it. A category only outgrows its own backyard once the whole world has decided it can't live without it.
FAQ
Is Korea really importing more kimchi than it exports?
By value, yes. In the first 10 months of 2025 Korea imported $159.46 million of kimchi (almost all from China) versus $137.39 million exported, a deficit of about $22 million.
Why is so much kimchi imported from China?
Price. Chinese kimchi is far cheaper, and Korean napa-cabbage harvests have been hit by climate-driven heat and supply disruptions, pushing restaurants and food makers toward cheaper imports for everyday use.
Are Korean kimchi exports still growing?
Yes. 2024 set a record at $163.6 million and 47,100 tons across 95 countries, and 2025 was on pace to beat it, led by Japan, the US and fast-growing Canada.
Sources: Korea Herald — kimchi exports vs China imports, Korea Herald — 2024 export record, The Korea Times.
Image: Madison Scott-Clary, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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