South Korea's exports of strawberries rose nearly 25 percent on-year in the first five months of this year on the back of robust output and rising demand amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday.

The country's exports of strawberries reached $49 million in the January-May period, up 24.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The gain was mainly attributable to an increase in strawberry output and the use of chartered flights for outbound shipments, the ministry said.

The government said last month that the country has operated 88 chartered flights to Singapore since December last year to help local strawberry farmers facing troubles in shipping their produce amid the pandemic.

The country has set the goal of increasing exports of strawberries to $65 million this year, up 20 percent from the previous year. (Yonhap)