South Korea's agricultural trade deficit rose to a record high in 2005 due to increased imports, a government report said Sunday.

South Korea posted a deficit of 10.86 U.S. dollars in the trade of agricultural, dairy, forestry and fisheries products in 2005, up 7.3 percent from the previous year, said the report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Imports of agricultural goods increased 5.7 percent to 14.28 billion dollars last year, while exports of local produced agriculture goods edged up 1.5 percent to 3.42 billion dollars, the report said.

Imports in the agricultural sector from China jumped 30.3 percent to 3.15 billion dollars, claiming the No. 1 share of South Korea's import market for the first time.

Japan, meanwhile, imported the largest amount of South Korean agricultural produce worth 1.45 billion dollars in 2005, followed by the U.S. with 370 million dollars and China with 340 million dollars, it said.

Source: Xinhua