The Korea Creative Content Agency, or KOCCA, said on Tuesday it published a KOCCA Focus report titled "K-Food puts on content and takes wing" that analyzes the economic effects of the content industry on the agri-food industry.

South Korea's agri-food exports have been rising alongside the spread of the Korean Wave. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp have pointed to the Korean Wave and the spread of content as key factors behind growth in processed food exports. KOCCA restructured input-output tables using a special classification system and empirically analyzed the content industry's impact on South Korea's agri-food industry.

According to the report, the content industry's average production-inducement coefficient was 1.757. The production-inducement coefficient affecting the agri-food industry was calculated at 0.080. This shows the spillover effect of the content industry on growth in the agri-food industry.

The analysis found that if content exports rise 10 percent, agri-food output increases by about 166.0 billion won and total industrial output by about 3.8 trillion won. The effect was larger in final consumer goods such as processed foods and dining out than in agricultural raw materials.

Song Jin (송진), head of KOCCA's Content Industry Policy Research Center, said, "This analysis confirms that the spillover power of the content industry is spreading beyond a cultural phenomenon to the real economy as a whole." He added, "We will continue to examine the potential for cooperation between content and related industries and contribute to raising the economic value of K-content."