Chairman Lee Jay-hyun of CJ Group.(Photos:CJ Group)

CJ Cheil Jedang announced on March 1 the opening of its R&D Center for research on foods in Fullerton, California, the U.S., to speed up the expansion of the sale of K-foods in that country and around the world.

The opening of the food research center is part of the company’s strategy to globalize Korean foods by setting up R&D centers around the world. The first such center opened in China in 2002 to take on such tasks as learning the tastes and the kinds of foods that local consumers prefer. The ultimate goal is that the company can produce and market a diverse lineup of foods exclusively for particular markets around the world.

President Kim Cheol-ha, at the opening ceremony for the center, said the center will learn the technologies for frozen foods in the U.S. and at the same time introduce its capacity to develop and market a variety of sauces.

The company has been benchmarking the global foodmaker Nestle’s strategy in facilitating and operating food R&D centers in 30 countries.

Kim said the company’s food R&D centers overseas will help develop foods that are palatable for the people of the countries they operate in, and more food R&D centers will be set up around the world in the future.

The U.S. food R&D center’s major subject for research is to develop technology related to frozen foods so that CJ Cheil Jedang can cut into the share of the U.S. frozen foods market, whose annual turnover is estimated at 38 trillion won. 

The ethnic food market around the world has been growing some 15 percent annually. The Korean food maker didn’t want to waste time to develop frozen Korean foods to enter the world market.

The CJ group affiliate has already been marketing Korean frozen dumplings under the brand names of “Bibigo” and “Anichon.” The annual revenue from those frozen dumplings in the U.S. came to 100 billion won last year, topping the frozen dumplings market in the U.S.

Director Han Jeong-woo of the U.S. food center said that Korean frozen dumplings are popular among local consumers because they have numerous kinds of vegetables in them. He said they wanted to differentiate them from the Chinese-style dumplings, which are very greasy, naming them as “K-mandu.”

He went on to say that he would like to have the center develop other main K-foods for  the U.S. and other foreign markets following the success of K-mandu.

The Food Ingredients Research Center has been developing the so-called ONLYONE food & feed ingredients that are leading the market, and a variety of applications for food materials. The Food Ingredients Research Center is equipped with an organic system of top-level research personnel and modern facilities that is dedicated to the study of new technology in diverse areas, such as sweeteners, oils & fats, grain ingredients, and pre-mix powders.

“We are conducting a wide range of R&D activities for developing healthier, tastier, more economical products,” officials of the center said.

CJ Cheil Jedang is principally engaged in the food, life science and logistics businesses, along with its subsidiaries. Its food business involves in the provision of food ingredients, such as sugars, mix flour products, functional sweeteners, specialty oils, pre-mixes, rice-processed products and other food ingredients; food products, including instant foods, instant cooked rice, fried dumplings, noodles, hams and others, as well as health food. 

Its life science business involves in the provision of generic and specialty pharmaceuticals, animal feeds, amino acid and others. Its logistics business involves in the ground and water transportation services, container terminal operation, express delivery and others. On April 1, 2014, it divested its life science business into a new wholly owned subsidiary, namely CJ HealthCare Corporation.

A group of key executives of CJ Cheil Jadang led by President Kim Cheol-ha cuts the tapes at an opening ceremony of the food company’s R&D Center in Fullerton, Calif., the U.S. on March 1.