Korea saw a trade surplus in vaccines for humans for the first time in the first half of this year, raising expectations for further growth of the vaccine industry.

According to a report on exports and imports of human vaccines and diagnostic agents, published by the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (KoreaBIO), human vaccine exports recorded $778 billion, and imports, $665 million, making a trade surplus of $113 million.

Korea has been recording a trade deficit in human vaccines until last year.

However, vaccine exports started exceeding imports in the first quarter, which maintained this trend until the first half.

KoreaBIO attributed the vaccine trade surplus to exports of Covid-19 vaccines in contract manufacturing and expanded shipments of flu vaccines.

In the first half of 2022, Australia was the largest importer of Korean-manufactured vaccines, followed by Taiwan, Singapore, Peru, and Colombia. The top 10 destinations included Costa Rica, Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, and Honduras.

During the same period, Belgium was the largest exporter of vaccines to Korea, followed by Germany, the U.S., Switzerland, Ireland, France, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy.

Until 2020, the U.S. was the largest vaccine exporter to Korea.

However, importing Covid-19 vaccines from Belgium in 2021 made Belgium the largest vaccine exporter to Korea.

Exports of Korean diagnostic reagents also posted a significant trade surplus, KoreaBIO’s report showed.

Shipments of diagnostic devices recorded $2.69 billion and imports, $449 million, resulting in a 2.16 trade surplus.

About 97 percent of the diagnostic reagent exports are categorized as “miscellaneous,” These items include Covid-19 antigen/antibody test kits and molecular diagnostic reagents.

In the first six months of this year, the U.S. was the largest importer of Korean-made testing kits, followed by Taiwan, Canada, Japan, Germany, Australia, Norway, Vietnam, Italy, and Brazil.

The most shipped were immunity-related goods, including Covid-19 antigen/antibody test devices.

During the same period, the U.S. was also the largest exporter of testing kits to Korea, followed by Germany, China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Sweden, the U.K., Lithuania, and France.

The U.S. is both the largest importer and exporter of diagnostic reagents to Korea, and Korea posted a $340 million trade surplus with the U.S. in this area, KoreaBIO said.