South Korea's food exports to China are on the rise, helped by shipments of new products that recently found their way to Asia's largest economy, a report said Monday.

In the first five months of the year, shipments of farm products to China gained 7 percent from the same period last year, while the country's overall food exports gained 2.9 percent on-year over the cited period, the agriculture ministry said earlier.

Such an increase compares with a prolonged slump in the country's overall exports, which have dropped every single month since the start of last year, with shipments to China shrinking for seven consecutive months since the start of 2016.

The rise in shipments of food products to China could be partly attributed to products that recently cleared China's customs and quarantine inspections, the report from the Korea International Trade Association noted.

In just two months since the country began shipping samgyetang, chicken soup made with ginseng and garlic, the traditional Korean dish fetched some $250,000 in China, according to the report.

The start of samgyetang shipments to China came after nearly 10 years of negotiations to go around what the report called various non-tariff trade barriers.

Overall exports of samgyetang came to $9.85 million in 2015 as the country also resumed shipping the product to the United States in the previous year following a 16-year break due to quarantine issues raised by the U.S.

Another good example of a South Korean product overcoming non-tariff barriers to trade is grapes, the report said.

Outbound shipments of grapes have been growing at an annual average of 28.4 percent over the past 11 years as the country successfully concluded its trade negotiations with the United States in 2005, followed by those with Canada, Australia and New Zealand in following years.

The country is also preparing to begin exporting grapes to China following successful negotiations last year, making it the first fresh foodstuff from South Korea ever to be shipped to China, it noted. (Yonhap)