At a growing number of Whole Foods and specialty grocers in the US, Korean sesame oil no longer sits in the “international” aisle next to the soy sauce. It’s migrated to the same shelf as extra-virgin olive oil and walnut oil — the finishing-oil shelf, where a few dollars more buys a bottle meant to be drizzled raw over a finished dish rather than cooked into one. That shift in where the bottle lives turns out to be more than a merchandising quirk. It’s the clearest explanation for why Korea’s sesame oil exports just posted their best first four months on record.
Korea Customs Service data released June 2 showed sesame oil exports rose 37 percent year-on-year to $6.14 million between January and April, Financial News reporter Kim Won-jun reported, with export volume up an even sharper 47.6 percent to 657 metric tons — both record highs for the period. The Korea Herald’s Jeon Ji-woo, citing the same customs data the same day, confirmed the figures and noted sesame oil has now posted double-digit annual growth for three straight years, following 20.3 percent growth in 2024 and 28.2 percent in 2025.
The United States remains the anchor market by a wide margin, up 170.8 percent year-on-year to $2.6 million and accounting for 41.7 percent of total exports — the 14th consecutive year Korean sesame oil’s biggest buyer has been the US. Canada jumped 249 percent to become the second-largest market. The growth isn’t confined to North America: Australia, where exports already grew 167.9 percent the year before, added another 29.7 percent this year, while European exports rose 42.7 percent to a record $700,000, lifted by the Netherlands and the UK. Korean sesame oil now reaches 57 countries.
What’s driving a pantry condiment into “premium finishing oil” territory, according to an industry source quoted by Financial News, is a fairly literal translation of Western eating habits: “Korean sesame oil, which has no chemical additives and minimal heat processing, has started to gain attention in Western markets as a premium ‘finishing oil’ that brings out the flavor in salads and vegetarian dishes” — the same role olive oil plays at the end of a dish rather than the start. Korean exporters reportedly leaned into that positioning deliberately, securing organic, halal and kosher certifications and switching to Western-style squeeze-tube packaging to get onto big-box and online retail shelves rather than staying confined to Korean grocery chains.
The other engine, both outlets agreed, is companion buying. Shoppers who’ve picked up short-form cooking content — recipes for ramyeon, bulgogi, bibimbap — increasingly try to recreate them at home, and sesame oil is one of the few ingredients that shows up in nearly all of them, turning a single viral clip into a multi-item cart rather than a one-off noodle purchase. Korea’s instant noodle exports topped $1.52 billion in 2025 on a similar dynamic, and sauce exports added another $410 million; sesame oil is riding the same wave, just from a much smaller base.
A $6.14 million four-month total is still a rounding error next to noodles or sauces, and “record for the period” is a modest bar when the category started small. The more interesting test is whether sesame oil’s premium-aisle positioning holds once it stops being novel — olive oil earned its shelf space over decades, not a single viral cooking trend. For now, the trajectory is the story: three straight years of double-digit growth, a widening list of importing countries, and a product migrating from a stir-fry staple to something shoppers reach for the way they reach for olive oil, which is a considerably higher ceiling than the one it started under.
Sources: Kim Won-jun, “‘K-참기름’의 질주…1~4월 수출 ‘역대 최대’,” Financial News, June 2, 2026. Jeon Ji-woo, “The latest K-food export star: Sesame oil,” The Korea Herald, June 2, 2026.
