Abstract
Flounder was selected as one of the 10 strategic export aquaculture products for seafood export expansion in 2013. The flounder aquaculture industry has promoted export market diversification and product diversification from live to processed goods as a it's main strategy. The purpose of this study is to find an improvement plan for export expansion to the United States, as it emerged as a new target export market for the flounder. A summary of the key findings is as follows. First, the western region of the United States prefers to consume live and fresh flounder, whereas the eastern region prefers to consume fresh flounder. Second, because of it's high quality, Korean flounder is favored in the western region of the United States despite it's high price, whereas in the eastern region of the United States, where production volume is high, Korean flounder has to compete with US flounders because of it's high price. Third, according to the survey results, US consumers tend to enjoy seafood, as well as flounder cuisines. Fourth, the main consumption place of flounders by US consumers are restaurants, and they prefer to consume them in the form of sashimi and sushi. Fifth, 70% of US consumers expressed willingness to consume flounder when eating out. which shows great market potential. However, the high price of Korean flounder and limited size of the live fish market act as major obstacles to expanding export volume. To expand exporting Korean flounder, continuos efforts such as price reduction, exporting highly fresh fish, the co-development of processed food with the US are needed.
