Market report

Korea Sauces & Condiments Import Market

Sauces, brewed soy sauce and seasoned fish sauce entering South Korea — origin mix, supplier base and volume trend.

Updated Aug 2026 · from official Korean import declarations

Report period
Jul 2025Aug 2026
14 months of declarations
Total shipments
13,744
import declarations 5%
vs. previous 6 months (5,849)
Suppliers
902
overseas manufacturerslevel
vs. previous 6 months (714)
Korean buyers
620
importing companies 2%
vs. previous 6 months (493)
New entrants
60
first-time suppliers
first shipped in the last 3 months
Key takeaways
  • Korea logged 6,160 sauces and condiments import declarations in the last six months, up 5% on the six months before.
  • Japan is the largest origin with 33.7% of all shipments (4,631).
  • Germany is growing fastest among established origins — up 90% over the last three months against the three before.
  • 60 overseas suppliers shipped sauces and condiments to Korea for the first time in the last three months.
  • Aug 2026 shipments were down 8% on the month before.

Monthly shipments — sauces & condiments

5%
last 6 months vs
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

Japan33.7%
China23.2%
Italy11.3%
Thailand11.2%
United States5.8%
Vietnam2.1%
Indonesia1.5%
Germany1.1%
Hong Kong0.9%
New Zealand0.8%

Origin share and momentum

OriginShipmentsShare3m vs prior 3m
Japan4,63133.7% 2%
China3,18923.2% 7%
Italy1,55411.3% 4%
Thailand1,54511.2% 5%
United States8025.8% 3%
Vietnam2912.1% 7%
Indonesia2041.5% 6%
Germany1501.1% 90%
Hong Kong1220.9% 20%
New Zealand1120.8% 43%

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 manufacturerShips
1OTAFUKU SAUCE CO., LTD.622
2SOMI SHOKUHIN CO., LTD. TANBA FACTORY551
3FOSHAN HAI TIAN (GAOMING) FLAVOURING & FOOD CO., LTD.384
4LEE KUM KEE(XIN HUI) FOOD CO, LTD.344
5KIKKOMAN FOOD TECH COMPANY / NAKANE269
6SUREE INTERFOODS CO.,LTD242
7ARIAKEJAPAN CO.,LTD.230
8QINGDAO SKY FOOD CO.,LTD218
9PANTAINORASINGH MANUFACTURER CO.,LTD.176
10YAMASA NARITA INC.147
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620 Korean companies import sauces and condiments. 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.

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These twelve are the biggest categories, not the only ones. The register covers every food, beverage, nutraceutical and packaging item type Korea imports.

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Method and coverage

Figures are counts of individual import declarations lodged with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, covering Jul 2025 to Aug 2026. This report covers the official item types Sauces, Brewed soy sauce, Seasoned fish sauce — 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.

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