The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) is hosting a fair, designed to expand Korean agro-food exports, with 456 companies from 40 countries, including foreign buyers and Korean export companies.
The MAFRA’s “2023 K-Food+ Buy Korean Food (BKF) is taking place at aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, from April 19 to 21, the ministry said.
The fair has been an opportunity for Korean agro-food exporters to hold one-on-one trade negotiations with invited foreign buyers. The latest agro-food exhibition is the biggest-ever held in the post-COVID-19 era.
“K-Food +” stands for nurturing the agro-food and related industries as export strategy industries: upstream and downstream industries, such as smart farm, agricultural machinery, materials and parts, and animal medicines on top of the Korean agro-food products, dubbed “K-Food.”
Participating in the “Buy Korean Food (BKF),” a one-on-one trade negotiation session, are 136 foreign buyers. They include Carrefour of Europe, Aeon of Japan, UNFI of the United States, Herma Xiansheng of China, Parknshop of Hong Kong and the online platform Lazada.
Attendees of the agro-food sector include 108 buyers from 33 countries in major markets, such as ASEAN, the Chinese sphere, North America, Central and South America and Europe and 242 export companies.
Twenty-eight buyers from the downstream and upstream industries and 78 Koran exporters are participating in BKF.
The ministry conducted a survey of foreign buyers’ priority items prior the opening of the session and handed over related information to Korean exporters.
It had arranged online meetings prior to the event among companies as part of support that could lead to the signing of contracts during BKF.
On the last day of BKF, foreign buyers will be given the chance to tour the fields of fresh agricultural produce, such as strawberries and tomatoes as well as domestic production sites of processed foods, such as ginseng products and kimchi. The tour is designed to boost exports of these products in the future.
In a related development, MAFRA Minister Chung Hwang-keun convened the 2nd Meeting of the "K-Food+ Export Expansion Headquarters” at aT Center on April 19.
The meeting brought together 22 people from major food makers, including CJ and Daesang as well as smart farm and agricultural machinery, other upstream and downstream industries, and related organizations.
The meeting took up topics, such as each company’s export situation and future plans.
The headquarters had interviews and meetings with about 170 companies to lend an ear to field voices since its inauguration in January.
Grievances and complaints companies experience and how to support the field’s recommendations were discussed during the meeting.
In accordance with a demand for expanding overseas marketing using Hallyu (Korean Wave), K-Food Fairs will take place in seven countries, including Japan and the United States in conjunction of the holding of overseas Hallyu concerts.
Ten export mainstay items, including kimchi, paste, ginseng, straw berries, grapes, pear, paprika, processed rice, pet animal feed and beverage drinks, will be chosen to place them in dramas under the marketing product placement (PPL) project.
The nation will expand ships and flights for exporting agro-food products to double down on logistics support in Korea and abroad and stabilize a stable supply of agricultural raw material products.
The number of ships for exporting agro-food products will increase from five to seven while that of flights will rise from two to eight.
The ministry will raise financial support related to joint overseas logistics centers from 35 million won to 80 million won to each company.
Each company will receive 50 million won in financial support related to homegrown cabbage preservation and storage costs to ensure a stable production of kimchi exports.
The government will provide 5 billion won to each company in smart farm export loans industries - for a combined 100 billion won - to expand exports of downstream and upstream. It will raise 20 billion won in a smart farm fund.
Financial support for purchasing agricultural machinery, raw materials and parts will increase from 200 billion won to 300 billion won while financial support cap to each company will rise from 50 billion won to 60 billion won for mid-size star enterprises and from 5 billion won to 6 billion won for SMEs.
The ministry plans to introduce a good manufacturing practice regime, a standard on the safety and efficacy of animal medicine exports.
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