Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon is welcomed by President Yoon Tae-jin of the Agency for National Food Cluster as he toured the national food cluster, FOODPOLIS in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, on July 18. He got a briefing on the current status of the development of the national food cluster.

“With a vision of creating an ecosystem of growing startups into global companies as a mecca of innovative growth of the food industry, the FOODPOLIS aims to lead future innovation technologies, create a food innovation campus and cultivate it into a center of export and marketing,” said President Yoon Tae-jin of the Agency for National Food Cluster.

The agency plans to ramp up innovative technology capabilities, strengthen youth startup support, expand support for export and marketing, create a 4th Industrial Revolution complex, and operate a new distribution platform, President Yoon said.

The agency is working on the implementation of new projects such as a raw material relay and supply center, a functional food evaluation center, a youth food startup hub and an HMR support center while planning to create a food park, he added.

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and President Yoon of the Agency for National Food Cluster, in which he spoke of a vision, and mid- and long-term development strategies.

Question: Will you tell our readers about the background behind the establishment of the Korean national food cluster FOODPOLIS and the status of the Agency for National Food Cluster?

Answer: The Korean national food cluster in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, has been established as a state project designed to use homegrown agricultural produce, make theme value-added goods, and promote the Korean food industry. The project was a follow-up step after the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) took effect in 2017.

The FOODPOLIS is a national cluster of food companies, research institutes and related industry bodies. The goal is to nurture it as a hub for the Northeast Asian food market by ramping up the global competitiveness of the food industry and driving the growth of the agricultural industry.

A master plan on the creation of the national food cluster, including the establishment of a promotion organization, was announced in December 2018.

The Agency for the National Food Cluster was established in January 2010 in accordance with the Act on the Promotion of the Food Industry. A ceremony to dedicate the agency headquarters and move into it took place in October 2016. President Yoon took office as the 3rd president of the Agency for National Food Cluster on Jan. 16, 2018.

The agency with a staff of 76 employees is composed of one headquarters, one office, six departments and nine teams.

Q: Will you elaborate on major projects and plans?

A: The Sauce Industrialization Center is to be dedicated in August. The Agency for National Food Cluster is seeking to change the center’s budget structure from a local government-oriented one to a state-financed one in which 90 percent of its budget is provided by the central government and assisted by the private sector like that of the agency.

The agency strives to secure budgets to implement new projects – the building of a hub of youth food startups and a home meal replacement (HMR) support center. The youth food startups hub project is designed to educate youth and college students about ideas and technology, give them have hands-on experience and offer space and facilities to launch agricultural food startups.

The HMR support center project calls for building infrastructure and providing support to companies to cope with growth trends of the HMR market and corporate technology demand.

Additional manpower - 43 more employees in 2020 - needs to be secured to the operation of facilities and equipment and the implementation of additional projects.

Related laws, including the Act on the Promotion of the Food Industry, need to be amended to give tax incentives to tenant companies and change the name of the National Food Cluster Support Center to the tentatively named Korea Food Industry Cluster Promotion Institute.

The agency is seeking to give tenant companies an exemption of corporate tax for three years and give a 50 percent exemption in the tax for two more years.

An aerial view of the national food cluster, FOODPOLIS. (Photos: Agency for National Food Cluster)

Q: Will you speak about the significance of the Agency for National Food Cluster’s designation of public entities under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA)?

A: As the Agency for National Food Cluster has become a public entity, its publicity and transparency on the operation of the agency will be enhanced through management evaluation, management filing and customer satisfaction surveys, and its executives and staff will have integrity and responsibility reinforced corresponding to the standing of a public entity.

We’re committed to not only fulfilling our duties with a sense of mission to support food companies in a fair and just fashion, but also to contribute to the development of regional society for the purpose of the public interest.

Q: Will you introduce us on the activities and achievements you’ve made since taking office as president of the Agency for National Food Cluster?

A: The Agency for National Food Cluster shifted its budget structure from a local government orientation to a state-financed scheme in which 90 percent of its budget is provided by the central government and is assisted by the private sector.

The agency has launched two new projects and secured 16 more employees and additional budget funding. One is about the building of a functional food evaluation center between 2019 and 2022 at a cost of 17.6 billion won and a raw materials supply center between 2019 and 2021 at a cost of 19.5 billion won.

The agency has its overseas reliability enhanced as it was recognized as an international certification accreditation body. It issues international certifications as an accreditation body as it was certified with the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS) last Dec. 20. The agency also obtained certification as a pilot plant GMP accreditation body on Sept. 28, 2017.

The agency has been accelerating efforts to attract investments by improving investment incentives.

The number of companies which have invested or singed up to make investments rose from 25 in 2016 to 80 as of June 2019.

The agency is seeking to give tax incentives to tenant companies through a revision of related tax laws. Rep. Lee Chun-seok submitted a measure last September, calling for giving tenant companies a corporate tax exemption for three years and a 50 percent tax exemption for two more years.

In accordance with the FOODPOLIS’s designation as a national innovation convergence complex, subsidies for local investments rose from 14 percent to 24 percent.

The agency has established the groundwork for innovative growth of the food industry through management innovation. It has separated management and business sectors and inaugurated a planning department to play its part as a control tower in keeping with outside organization diagnosis consulting.

We’ve implanted 110 management innovation tasks, including the establishment of a new vision and strategies, the introduction of a merit system - the creation of organizational evaluation and capability evaluation regimes.

Q: Will you touch on the vision of making the FOODPOLIS a mecca of innovative growth?

A: With a vision to create an ecosystem of fostering startups into global companies as a mecca of innovative growth for the food industry, the FOODPOLIS aims to lead future innovation technologies, create a food innovation campus and cultivate it into a center of export and marketing.

The agency plans to implement action strategies - ramping up innovative technology capabilities, strengthen youth startup support, expand support for export and marketing, secure international reliability, enhance support for corporate growth, beef up collaboration with local agricultural industry, provide space for technology innovation, create a 4th Industrial Revolution complex, and operate a new distribution platform.

Q: Will you tell us about the status of major tenant companies and tasks?

A: Eighty-two companies have moved into the national food cluster signed deals to do so, accounting for 48.2 percent of a combined 11.58 million sq. meters up for rent as of July 15.

Core Bio, a Korean-Russian joint venture, covers 19.9 percent of 116,000 sq. meters, an area reserved for foreign investments.
Thirty-three companies have broken ground or dedicated plants. Out of the total, 27 have begun to operate plants.

The agency endeavors to reinvigorate the national food cluster and attract investors.

It is concentrating its capabilities to strengthen activities and attract Korean and foreign investors with the goal of luring 90 companies. We’re making efforts to remove difficulties corporate investors experience to cope with investment condition changes in a nimble fashion while ramping up support for ground-breaking with financial support such as policy funds.

Q: Will you expand on your agency’s mid- and long-term development strategies?

A: We’re striving to build a management regime while planning to raise institutional self-sufficiency to 60 percent during the period between 2023 to 2025.

The agency is working on the implementation of new projects such as a raw material relay and supply center, a functional food evaluation center, a youth food startup hub and an HMR support center while planning to create a food park.