Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Riker]

Can you bring canned food with you through customs when coming to korea?
And stevia and other sugar products?


I don't have a lot of money for my first month, but I have basically unlimited access to organic food here through our food stamp program, so I was hoping to supplement my first month there by bringing some non perishable food items.

[MoonArisa]

Usually, and this is by vast travelling experience, you are allowed to bring canned food as long as it is scealed by a company and untouched. Anything in ziplocks or the likes never go through customs. Note, however, that I have no direct experience with Korea as of yet.

This said, I would be wary of products that may be of concern for the country, such as meat, milk related products, etc.

To be sure, I would suggest checking or e-mailing Korean customs directly.

[Hyeon Een]

Canned food is heavy.

It'd suck to pay $80 excess baggage to bring $10 of canned beans.

Forget that organic crap anyway. You're going to the wild East, it's time to cowboy up and eat some real DDT food.

[Riker]

Firstly, I won't be overweight on my baggage. Secondly, I've lived in Vietnam for 2 months and have no problems eating "questionable" food.

My concern is monetary, not completely health driven. I have access to food, and not cash. My first month in Korea is going to be super tight budget.

[rumdiary]

Bring what you must. I think you may regret not using your limited weight allowance to carry things that will last a while. I can't imagine you'd be able to carry more than a few days food anyway. Maybe you can sell the food or trade it for something lighter like dried beans?

[tombanjo]

Pretty sure the only question here was whether or not there would be any trouble brining canned food through customs. No need to lay on the rest of the usual BS.

In answer to the original question - I've never had any problems.

[Riker]

Thanks.

[Korangar]

How about canned beer? I am thinking of bringing over a couple cans of my favorite (Surly Furious), and am curious as to whether customs would let me.

[sojusucks]

There's actually a lot of different canned foods available in Korea. The only thing I haven't seen is canned raviolis.

[AsiaESLbound]

I'd love to find some of that canned pork we used to get years ago in the US commodities program. We used to get big blocks of cheese, butter, and big bags of rice and beans. These sorts of things are travelable in your 2 large check on bags. While bringing meat is technically illegal as to prevent foot and mouth spreading to other parts of the world , you could cut it up, put it in square plastic containers and freeze it. Cheese is another pricey thing that can be frozen and lugged over. Vitamins and Advil are also 4X higher than at home. Beef is running a good $10 and up per pound. A smallish raw chicken will run you $5 to $7. Pork is about 1/3 the price of beef. Foreign beer to drink in your apartment comes at what we consider to be bar prices. If you enjoy imported items and live like a Westerner, it will cost you a hefty chunk of your take home.

[northway]

[atwood]

[Dazed and Confused]

I've never had any problems with canned food or beans or any other packaged food. However, fresh meat and plants will cause you problems.

[Troglodyte]

Check out the price of sending something by surface mail. If you're not heading over right away, you could mail some stuff over to your school or a friend's place and then collect it when you arrive.