ANDYLISM Business Insight

 Korean food is having a global moment. From ramyeon and frozen gimbap to strawberries, grapes and pears, products once consumed mainly inside South Korea are increasingly appearing on supermarket shelves around the world. The numbers confirm the trend. In the first half of 2026, South Korea's K-Food+ exports reached a record $7.05 billion , up 4.1% from a year earlier. Agricultural and food exports alone reached $5.38 billion, while ramyeon exports surged nearly 28% to about $940 million. But behind this export boom lies a very different story. While the world is eating more Korean food, the communities that produce Korea's food are rapidly aging and shrinking. That raises a bigger question: Can the global K-Food boom become an economic lifeline for rural South Korea? 1. K-Food Is Becoming a Global Industry For years, Korean food exports were often associated with a handful of products such as kimchi, seaweed and instant noodles. That picture is changing. Ramyeon remains the s...

 South Korea is preparing another major attempt to cool its overheated housing market. AI gernerated image The government has proposed increasing the tax burden on owners of multiple homes and expensive properties while offering more favorable treatment to people who own and live in a single home. The message is politically powerful: housing should be a place to live, not merely an investment asset. But South Korea has tried variations of this approach before. Taxes have been raised, lending rules have been tightened, speculative districts have been designated and new housing projects have been announced. Yet apartment prices in Seoul have repeatedly recovered after temporary slowdowns. The latest tax proposal therefore raises a larger question: Can higher taxes finally stabilize Seoul’s housing market—or will they treat the symptoms without changing the structure that keeps pushing demand toward the capital? What is South Korea proposing? The proposed tax changes would inc...