High-end coffee is popular in South Korea and Brazil coffee merchants are optimistic about the market opportunities.

As South Korea's exports of electronic products have soared in the past decade, so has the demand for high-end coffee, Taiwan's "United News Network" reported. Brazilian coffee bean exporters have noticed this trend and hope to open up the market from South Korea at a time when the coffee bean market is depressed.

It is reported that the number of coffee shops in South Korea rose to 15000 last year, nine times the number in 2006. Starbucks has 554 stores in South Korea. Singer Psy sarcastically sings "there are fashionable women who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee" and "men who can't wait to drink coffee to drink a toast" in the popular music "Gangnam Style", fully reflecting the South Korean people's pursuit of wealth and fashion. Coffee is becoming more and more advanced, the price is on a par with that of New York, and a cup of coffee is not too expensive.

Da Siva, who is in charge of coffee business at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out that South Korean coffee bean roasters are willing to offer higher prices than the United States in order to get good coffee beans. He said that for every 60kg bag of coffee beans, the price sold in South Korea is more than three times that in the United States.

Braga, chairman of the Brazilian Coffee Export Council, said Brazilian coffee bean exports to South Korea could grow by 4.5 per cent a year over the next five years, compared with less than 1 per cent in Japan, Asia's largest coffee market. "South Korea pays attention to brand, origin and quality, which is why South Korea is now regarded as an important coffee market," he said. " Brazil ranks second with a market share of about 20 per cent in South Korea, second only to 30 per cent of Robusta coffee in Vietnam.

South Korea is leading the trend of coffee-loving in Asia, and Brazilian coffee makers also hope that South Korea can serve as a springboard to other Asian markets, including China.

Brazil's sales of raw coffee beans to south Korea last year rose 19% from 2009 to 326000 bags, still far below the 2.6 million bags sold to japan. However, Sato, president of the Brazilian coffee industry association, believes that South Korea has the potential to reach the same scale within five years at the earliest.