Milk, meat and kiwifruit are among the big winners of the new free trade agreement between New Zealand and South Korea.

The announcement by Prime Minister John Key and Korean President Park Geun-hye has been enthusiastically welcomed by the trio of industries - all of which have struggled under large import tariffs in South Korea.

The new free trade agreement has been warmly welcomed in New Zealand.

Korea is New Zealand's fourth-largest beef export market by volume, taking nearly $110 million of beef exports last year.

However, the trade volume has dropped significantly in recent years, and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Chairman James Parsons insists this is in part due to the tariff advantage enjoyed by US beef exporters under that country's 2012 FTA with Korea.

Last year the Korean tariffs charged on New Zealand's beef exports added up to around $43.5 million - about $1.34 of additional cost per kilogram of carcass weight on beef products that were shipped to Korea.

In the first year of implementation the tariff cost on beef is forecast to come down to about $1.25 per kilogram of carcass weight.

'We were at risk of losing our competitiveness in the Korean market, due to the US FTA and other deals that Korea has signed with beef exporters in recent months, but this deal will make sure that we don't fall further behind our competitors,” says MIA chairman Bill Falconer.

'Ensuring meaningful access to Korea has been one of the industry's highest trade priorities.”

Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand chairman, Malcolm Bailey, says the agreement is a good outcome given these had been very difficult negotiations.

'With other larger countries having concluded FTAs already with Korea, it was undoubtedly a hard road for New Zealand's Minister Groser and his negotiators to get these outcomes,” he says.

'They have done a fine job in those circumstances and the dairy industry deeply appreciates their efforts.”

The agreement will result in elimination of tariffs on the vast majority of dairy tariff lines over reasonable periods.

Zespri Chief Executive, Lain Jager also welcomes the announcement of the FTA deal with South Korea and the significant outcome that has been achieved for the kiwifruit industry.

Over the past year, Zespri growers have paid approximately $20 million in tariffs into this important market.

Lain says: 'With volumes of our new SunGold variety increasing to over 50 million trays by 2018, this gives us a strong platform to build sales in this market.”

South Korea is a vital market to Zespri,but the absence of an FTA and the resulting tariff disadvantages as well as the subsequent uncertainty around the investment environment has held back development until now.