A poster to publicize Seoul Food 2020, Korea’s largest food exhibition hosted by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

Seoul Food 2020, Korea’s largest food exhibition, took place from Sept. 15 through Sept. 19 virtually. The event is hosted by Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

Seoul Food 2020 had been rescheduled from May to September due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and pivoted to a contactless online exhibition.

The exhibition consisted of five categories: an online exhibition, virtual negotiation sessions, an awards event, and a job fair.

Exhibitors and buyers – 500 Korean companies and 800 foreign buyers – participated in online negotiation sessions.

The online exhibition divided into two – a food pavilion with 28 food item categories and a food apparatus pavilion with 23 food apparatus categories.

KOTRA’s overseas branch offices arranged one-on-one trade negotiation sessions between Korean food exporters and 300 foreign buyer companies.

The Global Food Trend & Tech Conference, a representative side event of Seoul Food Show 2020, was held virtually on Sept. 16.

The event served as an opportunity to look at the latest food technology developments like contactless consumption trends of the global food market and 3D food printing.

Seoul Food 2020 Award winners were selected among the exhibitions in three categories: healing, well-being food, health food, and organic food sector; desert and fancy food sector; and innovation sector.

The awardees included Fine Food for presenting boiled peanuts in the healing segment, Nature Order for making Moon Chip, a rice chip, in the desert segment, and Dongsan Food for producing rose rice pasta in the innovation segment.

The awardees were entitled to display their products at the on-line special pavilion of Seoul Food 2020 and receive a certificate from KOTRA, which can be used to make a pitch for their products and for distribution and publicity activities.

Seoul Food Awards plans to make diverse plans for supporting awards winners to put products with a competitive edge on the global market. A Seoul Food Awards official said KOTRA is supporting efforts to publicize the five award winner products from each of the three categories.

Amid sagging exports, caused by the spread of the pandemic, homegrown agricultural food exports had shot up to $4.8 billion in the first eight months of the year, a 4.9 percent rise over the same year last year.

In particular, kimchi, ramyeon and food seasonings jumped 40.3 percent, 36.7 percent and 23,5 percent, respectively.

KOTRA President Kwon Pyung-oh gives a virtual welcoming speech at Seoul Food 2020.

KOTRA President Kwon Pyung-oh said attention needs to be paid on global new food market trends that emerge in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic such as the rise of meal kits and other home meal replacements, the surging food delivery market, health promotion foods, designed to enhance immunity, and rising demand for plant-based protein foods.

President Kwon expressed hope diverse programs of the online Seoul Food 2020 would serve as an opportunity for Korean food makers to share rapidly changing food industry trends and establish strategies to enter global markets.

Officials of a Korean food company hold a one-on-one negotiation session with a foreign buyer during Seoul Food 2020. (Photos: KOTRA)