Taste of Diversity: Immigrant Contributions to South Korea's Agri-Food Market

Taste of Diversity: Immigrant Contributions to South Korea's Agri-Food Market | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Taste of Diversity: Immigrant Contributions to South Korea's Agri-Food Market Yinhua Quan, Jeong-Bin Im, Young-June Kim This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5524721/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Immigration is posited to enhance trade diversity; however, empirical evidence supporting this relationship remains scarce, especially within the realm of migrant populations and their impact on the agri-food sector. This study is the first to focus on South Korea—a country that has experienced a significant influx of immigrants in recent decades and has traditionally been viewed as mono-ethnic, thus having substantial potential for food diversification. We also introduce “variety” as a measure of diversity, commonly used in the trade–welfare nexus, to examine the impact of immigrants on agri-food imports diversity. Using data from 2009 to 2021 for all the trading partners of South Korea in the agri-food sector, we applied System Generalized Method of Moments estimation within a gravity model framework. The results show that immigrants significantly enhance both agri-food import values and varieties in South Korea. Additionally, immigrants from regions with similar dietary cultures tend to have a lesser impact on agri-food imports. international immigrants agri-food imports diversity South Korea Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5524721","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":394344375,"identity":"604447fa-2319-42e1-ab70-edd98fab2aa3","order_by":0,"name":"Yinhua Quan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA50lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNACA4YEBgbmA1BeAtFa2BKgqonSAlbGY0CcFr4byc8e8xTcyTM4fuab5M8fdgz87DkGDD934NYieSPN3JjH4FmxwZncbdI8CckMkj1vDBh7z+DxxY0EM2keg8OJGw4AtTAkHACK5BgwM7bh05L+DaLl/Jtnkj+AWuwJa8mB2nIjh02CB2SLBAEtkmfelEnOAWqZeeOZsTVPWjKPxJlnBQd78WjhO56+TeLNn8OJfeeTH978YWMnx9+evPHBTzxaGA4wMDDxIPF5oIL4tTD+wKtiFIyCUTAKRjwAAHmrVIG1BbnxAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1968-8250","institution":"University of Science and Technology of China","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yinhua","middleName":"","lastName":"Quan","suffix":""},{"id":394344376,"identity":"a8de66ac-835a-4ed8-a78d-d83d1f9d220a","order_by":1,"name":"Jeong-Bin Im","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Seoul National University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jeong-Bin","middleName":"","lastName":"Im","suffix":""},{"id":394344377,"identity":"47cbbff5-283d-4ccc-a622-7df1cd9d4350","order_by":2,"name":"Young-June Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Kangwon National University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Young-June","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-11-26 05:47:42","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5524721/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5524721/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":81720134,"identity":"15855f19-fdc4-41bb-9aac-8c5969e8a2b4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-04-30 16:07:26","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":538672,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5524721/v1_covered_bee11da5-899b-41ae-bf42-f2ff789c8f0e.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Taste of Diversity: Immigrant Contributions to South Korea's Agri-Food Market","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"international immigrants, agri-food imports, diversity, South Korea","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5524721/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5524721/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eImmigration is posited to enhance trade diversity; however, empirical evidence supporting this relationship remains scarce, especially within the realm of migrant populations and their impact on the agri-food sector. 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