Frozen Fruits insights

The University of Costa Rica has published a study that addresses the perceptions and practices of the Costa Rican population regarding frozen chicken products, consumption habits and reasons for not consuming them, food safety and cooking methods used.

Mr. Kim, a 30-year-old office worker living in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, recently buys and drinks a ‘strawberry latte’ at a nearby cafe after lunch. Mr. Kim said, “It catches my eye even more because it is a limited menu item in the winter.” However, the strawberries in Mr. Kim’s drink are most likely frozen strawberries from China, not domestic fresh strawberries. Last year, the import volume of foreign frozen strawberries increased significantly. There are criticisms that the strawberry consumer market that domestic strawberry producing regions worked hard to create is being given over to imported frozen strawberries. At the recent ‘Agricultural Outlook 2025’ conference, the Korea Rural Economic Institute announced that the import volume of frozen strawberries last year reached 16,774 tons. It increased by 31.3% compared to the previous year (12,771 tons). It more than doubled compared to 2015 (7,659 tons). By country, Chinese strawberries accounted for 58.3% of the total import volume at 9,787 tons. The reason is that demand for processing has increased significantly. Shin Seong-cheol, a researcher at the Fruit and Vegetable Observation Team of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, said, “Deserts containing strawberries have been popular for years in cafes and bakeries, but because the unit price of domestic strawberries is high, the number of processing companies looking for cheap imported frozen strawberries has increased.” The main domestic producing regions are very worried. Na Won-byeong, team leader of the Agricultural Products Distribution Center (APC) of Nonsan-Gyeryong Agricultural Cooperative Federation in Chungnam Province, said, “If the amount of small-sized strawberries imported increases by just 5%, the auction price will drop by 10-15%,” and “In order to support the price, Nonsan City Cooperative Joint Venture Corporation has been operating a frozen strawberry factory for the past three years and is excluding small strawberries weighing 15g or less from distribution for processing.” He expressed concern, saying, “If imported frozen strawberries flood in like water, it is obvious that the price of fresh strawberries will fall.” Reporter Kim In-gyeong

Albert Heijn issued a safety warning on Monday regarding 1kg bags of its own brand frozen blueberries.