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South Korea’s beer imports from Japan grew for the fifth month in a row in January amid easing in the consumer boycott on Japanese brands due to diplomatic and trade dispute.

According to the Korea Customs Service and local industry sources on Thursday, Korea imported 1,072 ton of beer from Japan in January, up 670.3 percent from a year earlier. Beer import from the neighboring country has been rebounding since September last year.

Tokyo in July 2019 restricted exports of key materials used in semiconductor chips and display panels to Korea amid dispute over compensations for wartime forced labor. This sparked Korean consumers’ boycott against Japanese products and beer was one of the hardest hit. Korea’s Japanese beer imports plunged from 9,462 tons in June to 4 tons in September that year.

Korea’s beer import from Japan still is small compared to the pre-boycott period but sales have been picking up, said an industry official.

In January, Japanese brand accounted for 5.0 percent of the total imported beer. Korea imported beer most from China – 6,836 tons or 31.9 percent of the total. Trailing behind were the Netherland with 4,002 tons, the United States with 1,927 tons, Belgium with 1,334 tons, and Poland with 1,128 tons.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]