Korea Butter Import Market
Butter and processed butter imported into South Korea — origin share, supplier base and month-by-month shipments.
Updated Sep 2026 · from official Korean import declarations
- Korea logged 1,443 butter import declarations in the last six months, up 42% on the six months before.
- France is the largest origin with 36.3% of all shipments (1,060).
- Australia is losing ground, down 57% over the same window.
- 3 overseas suppliers shipped butter to Korea for the first time in the last three months.
- Sep 2026 shipments were down 7% on the month before.
Monthly shipments — butter
the 6 before
Each declaration is one customs filing, not one container — a useful proxy for how often a market is being served rather than for tonnage.
Where it comes from
Origin share and momentum
| Origin | Shipments | Share | 3m vs prior 3m |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 1,060 | 36.3% | ▲ 17% |
| New Zealand | 968 | 33.2% | ▼ 5% |
| United States | 358 | 12.3% | ▼ 36% |
| Italy | 113 | 3.9% | ▼ 44% |
| Australia | 106 | 3.6% | ▼ 57% |
| Germany | 80 | 2.7% | — |
| Netherlands | 71 | 2.4% | — |
| Belgium | 56 | 1.9% | — |
| Denmark | 33 | 1.1% | — |
| United Kingdom | 20 | 0.7% | — |
Growth is suppressed where the earlier window holds fewer than 20 shipments — a move from three to nine is not a trend.
Top suppliers to Korea
| # | Overseas manufacturer | Ships |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FONTERRA LIMITED | 867 |
| 2 | ISIGNY SAINTE-MERE | 204 |
| 3 | ARMOR PROTEINES | 142 |
| 4 | WEST POINT DAIRY PRODUCTS | 128 |
| 5 | SOCIETE BEURRIERE D'ISIGNY | 120 |
| 6 | CALIFORNIA DAIRIES INC. | 91 |
| 7 | FLECHARD LAITERIE DU PONT MORIN | 84 |
| 8 | UCLAB INDUSTRIE | 76 |
| 9 | EURIAL | 76 |
| 10 | ELVIR - ELLE & VIRE PRODUITS LAITIERS | 74 |
- 1Feqizat Liqidiwizil383
- 2Wuka Qit Zutesez Geb229
- 3Zotih Rowemife Wuk Kem171
- 4Kiza Foji Kop Vud148
- 5Lacat Rur Kej131
- 6Zitoteh Quvalonuq Taf129
- 7Wovila Bic Gem125
108 Korean companies import butter.
This report does not name them.
KoreanImportData tracks every one of them — who they buy from, which origins they switched to, how often they ship and when they last imported. Search the full register by product, company or country, in English.
Every account starts free with five lookups — no card required.
These twelve are the biggest categories, not the only ones. The register covers every food, beverage, nutraceutical and packaging item type Korea imports.
Request a custom reportMethod and coverage
Figures are counts of individual import declarations lodged with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, covering Jul 2025 to Sep 2026. This report covers the official item types Butter, Processed butter — matched on the declared item type only, never on product-name text, so unrelated goods cannot be pulled in by a keyword.
Origin is the declared country of manufacture, not the country the goods were shipped from, which can differ where a distributor re-exports.
Company and product names are translated or transliterated from the official Korean record and may be imperfect; the Korean record is authoritative. One manufacturer can appear under more than one plant or spelling.
The register is reloaded monthly and this page is rebuilt with it. Figures here will differ from a report you read last month, by design.