Trade for kimchi, Korea's staple side dish made of fermented cabbage, hit a surplus last year, marking the first time in four years, data showed Sunday (February 7).

Kimchi exports last year totalled US$89.4 million with imports hitting $66.3 million, leaving a surplus of $23.1 million, according to the food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries ministry, and the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp.

By volume, exports totalled 28,505 tons while imports totalled 148,124 tons. Import volume may have surpassed export volume, but the government attributes the surplus to the higher cost of exporting locally produced kimchi.

Overseas shipments of the side dish rose 4.8 per cent in 2009 compared to the $85.3 million recorded the previous year, while imports contracted by 41.1 per cent compared to the $112.7 million logged in 2008.

Korea's No. 1 kimchi export destination was Japan, which shipped in $77.6 million worth, the report said. The United States followed with $2.23 million, and then Taiwan with $1.95 million, Hong Kong with $1.38 million and New Zealand with $946,000.

China was the source of most of Korea's imported kimchi, the government said.

Kimchi had once been the country's leading export item topping the $100 million mark, but cases of parasite-infested kimchi in 2005 drove the trade surplus down to a deficit. Korea importing most of its domestically consumed kimchi also sparked criticism over the irony.

The ministry report attributes the main driving force behind the surplus to the government's tightened regulations for labelling the product origin of kimchi required by the dining industry.

The agriculture ministry noted that the surplus was achieved due to the steep drop in imports rather than the growth in exports.

"Demand for Chinese-made kimchi has declined significantly since the government implemented the product of origin labeling regulation in late 2008," the ministry said.

Chinese kimchi has been popular for its cheap cost. Many Korean food manufacturers have production plants in the neighbouring Asian country due to cheap labour costs and competitive raw materials prices.

Many Koreans hold a negative perception of food products from China because of a stereotype that Chinese food-safety regulations and food-production systems are questionable, industry observers say.