S. Korea\'s agricultural exports increase

South Korea\'\'s exports of food and agricultural products rose 24% from a year earlier in August on growing demand for the country\'\'s high-quality products in China and other Asian countries, the government said Thursday. South Korea shipped US$580 million worth of farm, fishery and forestry products in August, compared with $470 million a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In the first eight months of this year, overseas shipments of food and agricultural products reached $4.65 billion, up 31.1% from the same period last year, the South Korean News Agency (Yonhap) reported . Japan continued to be the largest customer of South Korean products with over $1.46 billion worth of food and agricultural products shipped there in the January-August period, up 28.3% from the same period last year, the ministry said. Exports to China surged 58.1% to $725 million in the eight-month period with exports to the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also surging 47.4% on-year to nearly $640 million.