Import Coffee from India to South Korea

Yes. Under the Special Act on Imported Food Safety Management, foreign manufacturing plants and establishments supplying food to Korea must be registered with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Registration is completed on an MFDS platform available in English as well as Korean, there is no registration fee, and it must be in place before the import declaration is filed. Registration also carries an undertaking to accept on site inspection where MFDS requires it. Ask your supplier for the facility details and verify the registration before you contract.

Since January 2019 Korea has applied a Positive List System to pesticide residues across all agricultural products. Where a Korean maximum residue limit or an import tolerance exists for a pesticide and commodity combination, that limit applies. Where neither exists, a default tolerance of 0.01 mg per kg applies, and the same standard applies to domestic and imported product alike. This matters because a substance used lawfully at origin can still fail at the Korean border if no Korean limit has been set for it. A residue certificate issued against European limits does not answer the Korean question. Send the substance list your adviser works from and the pre shipment screen can be scoped to it.

Generally yes. No product registration is required to import food into Korea, but a product new to the market is subject to laboratory testing by the relevant inspection agency. Once a lot has passed that testing, subsequent shipments of the same product generally clear on a lighter inspection track rather than repeating full laboratory testing. The practical consequence is that the first consignment should be treated as a compliance milestone rather than a commercial one: keep it modest, source it from a single facility, and make sure the documentation is complete.

Imported products sold at retail in Korea are required to carry a legible Korean language label. Korean requirements allow the label to be applied by sticker or tag after arrival, provided it is not easily removed and does not cover the original label. That differs from several Middle Eastern markets, where stickering must be completed before the goods leave origin. If you run one supply chain across both regions, do not assume the same artwork process serves both. Green coffee in jute bags moving to a roaster is not a retail product and does not carry a consumer label.

Korea applies a low base rate of duty on unroasted coffee, with preferential rates available to origins covered by a free trade agreement. India and Korea have a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in force. Preferential treatment is claimed at customs entry against a valid Certificate of Origin and is not automatic; without a valid certificate at clearance the base rate applies. Confirm the treatment of your specific tariff line with your Korean customs broker before the container sails.

Robusta Kaapi Royale, the washed Parchment A grade, is the usual starting point, since wet processing delivers crema and body without the harshness of natural Robusta. That matters in a market where most espresso is served in milk. Roasters wanting more sweetness often blend in Arabica Cherry AA, and Monsoon Malabar AA adds low acid body plus a distinctive origin story. Ask for a sample set across all three and cup them against your current blend.

Monsooning is a post harvest process unique to India, not a varietal. Natural Arabica beans are exposed to monsoon winds on the Malabar coast for twelve to sixteen weeks, absorbing humidity, swelling to nearly twice their size and turning pale gold. The result is a bold, earthy, very low acid cup with heavy body. In a Korean market where menu differentiation is intensely competitive and the green shelf is dominated by Latin American and East African arabica, it offers something no other origin can replicate.

Standard MOQ for green coffee is one 20 foot FCL container, approximately 18 to 20 MT loaded as around 300 jute bags of 60 kg each. Roasted coffee is 200 kg per roast profile and instant coffee is 500 kg per profile. LCL shipments can be discussed for specialty single origin lots and for first time buyers, which on the Korean route is often the sensible sequence given how first shipment inspection works.

No transit figure is published here. Services from Indian ports to Northeast Asia vary in routing and transhipment, and a number printed on a supplier website would go stale faster than it would help. Ask your freight forwarder for a current transit and service string to Busan or Incheon, and tell us what you are given so the lot can be packed for the actual voyage rather than an assumed one.

Certified lots are available through our supplier network, primarily from estates in Araku Valley and selected Wayanad and Coorg estates, with 8 to 12 weeks lead time. Certification is held by the producing and processing facility rather than by Alstoe, and we supply the full certificate chain. Note that organic marketing claims in Korea are separately regulated and an overseas organic certification does not automatically transfer, so confirm the recognition position with your Korean regulatory adviser before making a claim on pack.

Payment terms are confirmed on the proforma invoice against your written specification. A 500 g sample is dispatched free within 48 hours and cup scores are locked in writing before the order is confirmed, so you approve the lot before any payment is discussed.