Korean Food Industry Teams up to Expand Exports

Sejong, 28 June 2024 — On 21 May, at the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT Centre), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) held a meeting with Korean private companies who are going to join the MAFRA’s initiative to promote shared growth and collaboration between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. The initiative aims to expand exports of Korean agri-food products.

* Agri-food products means processed and non-processed food products, excluding aquatic food products.

The initiative has been launched to nurture small and medium-sized enterprises with a large export potential by allowing them to utilize global networks and distribution channels of large enterprises and thus supporting their marketing activities abroad.  

At the meeting, Korean major companies such as GS Retail, Samyang Roundsquare, Samyang AANI, Samsung Welstory, Lotte Chilsung Beverage, and CJ CheilJedang brought to the table a business model for shared growth and collaboration they were carrying out or considering.

GS25, the convenience store brand of GS Retail, will work together with SMEs to introduce Korean desserts to young consumers in the Vietnamese and Mongolian markets. For instance, GS25 is collaborating with Bontemps, a Korean company known for its hot-selling twisted doughnuts in Korea, to bring to the markets twisted Korean doughnuts tailored to local palates. As of last January, the number of convenience stores overseas run by GS25 reached 500 in total. Other large enterprises in the food industry also put forward a model of cooperation to work together with SMEs to expand into new export markets. 

On the other hand, the government will provide necessary policy support to help increase the exports of food products of SMEs and processed Korean agri-food products.

Deputy Minister Kwon Jae-han of the Agricultural Innovation Policy Office of the MAFRA said: “Thanks to public-private cooperation, including the operation of the K-Food Plus Export Expansion Promotion Headquarters, last year’s export value of agri-food products and of the products from the related forward- and backward-linked industries reached a record high of USD 12.13 billion—USD 9.16 billion in agri-food products and USD 2.97 billion in the products from the forward- and backward-linked industries related with agri-food products—amid challenging external conditions such as the global economic slowdown. This year, we will make efforts to expand export markets for Korean food products and to promote shared growth between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. To this end, we will continue to develop a business model for shared growth and collaboration between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. And we will provide a wide range of support for Korean food products to become a flagship export item of South Korea.”