Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. (aT) announced that it successfully held the 2024 Ho Chi Minh K-Food Fair in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from Oct. 17 to Oct. 20.
The goal was to expand Korean agri-food product exports to Vietnam and create a local consumption culture in the Southeast Asian country.
According to aT, the K-Food Fair was filled with various programs, including export consultations for exporters and buyers, as well as experiential events for local consumers.
In the export counseling session, a total of 150 buyers from Vietnam, including those from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the Philippines and Thailand, and 39 Korean exporters, participated in one-on-one consultations, resulting in a total of 710 export consultations on exports of Korean agri-food products worth $75 million.
A lot of attention was paid to health functional foods, including red and black ginseng, fresh agricultural products such as strawberries, Shine Muscat and apples, kimchi, beverages, and snacks among them.
At a consumer experience event during the fair, Korean exporters and local buyers ran promotional booths to target local consumers in Vietnam.
Various Korean agri-food products captured Vietnamese consumers’ taste buds, such as Shine Muscat, pears, ginseng, processed rice, instant noodles, beverages, health functional foods, alcoholic beverages, and various sauces.
The “2024 Ho Chi Minh K-Food Festival,” hosted by Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. in cooperation with the Vietnamese distribution company “MM Mega Mart” in Vietnam in October, has received a good reception from local consumers.
In addition, consumers who visited brand promotion pavilions and market test pavilions, among others, were provided with door-to-door stamp certificates and voucher coupons to actively encourage them to make on-site purchases of Korean agri-food products.
Following the K-Food Fair in Ho Chi Minh City, aT participated in the Paris SIAL Food Fair in Paris, France, from Oct. 19 to Oct. 23 to expand Korean agri-food product exports to Europe. They recorded export consultations on Korean agri-food products worth $90 million.
The Paris SIAL Food Fair, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, is Europe’s leading food fair with about 280,000 visitors annually. aT set up the Korean Pavilion with 75 outstanding Korean companies to promote a wide array of food products for export, including traditional foods such as kimchi, traditional Korean sauces and ginseng and even food technology items such as alternative meat and convenience foods.
Samgyetang products, which recently broke into the European market, were sampled and well received by local buyers.
aT also participated in a franchise fair held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27 to support Korean food brands’ overseas expansion.
The Korean food brands signed 13 business agreements, the beginning of master franchise agreements, to increase the possibility of their entering the halal food market.
The venue for the 2024 K-Food Fair B2B Export Event in Ho Chi Minh City.
Tackling Climate Change
aT initiated the Climate Change Response Task Force to deal with climate change’s impact on Korean agri-food products.
This summer’s unprecedented heat wave caused “heat inflation” (heat + inflation) to sweep the world, making it necessary to urgently respond to extreme weather conditions.
This year, the prices of green onions, apples, and cabbages soared and the biggest cause was climate change.
In response, aT has focused on the need to accelerate the development of new varieties that can withstand extreme weather and to build cold storage warehouses across the country to ensure a stable supply.
Under the leadership of CEO Hong Moon-pyo, aT has set an export target of US$15 billion for Korea’s agricultural exports for 2025. This is a 15 percent increase from a target of US$13.5 billion for 2024.
At will continue to explore the Middle East, Latin America, and India, three promising new markets, and expand its presence in major export markets such as the United States, China, and Japan.
aT also suggests that Korea’s complex distribution structure of agricultural products be reduced to create a win-win growth situation for both producers and consumers.
“The current five to six stages of distribution should be shortened to two to three stages,” Hong said in a meeting with reporters.
“Online wholesale markets for agricultural products should be revitalized. So should local direct sales markets. farmers will be able to meet with consumers directly to sell their crops for higher margins.”
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