Daesang has put on the market new products

Perilla Oil Basasak (Crisp) Gim (Laver) / Myeongnan (Pollack Roe) BasasakGim

Mini OelinipGim

Olive Oil JaeraeGim

Daesang aims to post 80 billion won in sales in laver and seaweed products by 2023, and has launched efforts to shore up its laver business.

Daesang has become the first Korean food maker to establish the tentatively named Seaweed Research Center, after declaring a vision of being a global leader of traditional fisheries product globalization.

The research center serves as the epicenter of the laver business in Korean and exporting laver products.

 It is responsible for scientifically analyzing laver products according to 11 in-house quality evaluation categories, such as protein content, tastes, moisture, food texture and colors and grading them for systematic management of the seaweed.

The research center is outfitted with newly introduced state-of-the-art content inspectors, food texture analyzers, and color-difference meters.

In the past, harvested laver, mass produced by labor farming business, has been procured from auction dealers depending on experiences without grading before being processed and put on the market.

Since the conventional method does not guarantee high-quality, Daesang has set up the Seaweed Research Center and introduced regimes such as a quality grading system.

The research center sorts out harvested laver according into five grades and produces laver products tailored for each detailed market and optimal use, including ones for making gimbap and seasoning.

Daesang depends on systems such as the designated laver farming plants, keeping harvested laver in a freezer, and a traceability system to ramp up the competitiveness of the laver business.

Daesang, shifting laver production paradigm from quantity to quality, saw laver sales rise in Korea. The value of the Korean laver market was estimated at about 405.8 billion won as of 2018, a 3 percent drop over 2014. On the contrary, Daesang saw sales rise to 16.8 billion won in 2018, a 21 percent jump over 2014.

On top of improving quality, Daesang has been accelerating efforts to develop new laver products. The food maker has released new products such as “Perilla Oil Basasak (Crisp) Gim (Laver),” “Olive Oil Jaerae Gim,” “Myeongnan (Pollack Roe) Basasak Gim,” and “Mini Oelinip Gim.”

Mini Oelinip Gim is produced in the process of analyzing and managing harvested young laver on the part of the Seaweed Research Institute.

The product is produced with salt for exclusive use by children after sorting out young raw lavers and cooking them at a temperature of more than 400 degrees.

Daesang expects that as rice consumption drops, laver consumption is expected to be on the decline.

The food maker is striving to diversify its liver product polio in order to boost liver product sales by releasing products like kid-, silver- and premium-type ones tailored to meet specific needs.