[Exclusive] Daesang's Race to Produce 'Gim' Locally Overseas for the First Time: "Vietnam Factory Construction and Additional Expansion in Indonesia"

The Only Korean Company Producing and Selling Gim Overseas... Leading the Globalization of Korean Gim
Building New Production Bases in Vietnam Following Indonesia... Plans to Expand into the Middle East and Beyond

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Daesang is establishing a new production base in Vietnam to globalize 'Gim' (Korean seaweed). After becoming the first Korean company to build a gim factory in Indonesia and achieving local production overseas, it has expanded its production bases. Due to the nature of gim, local production can preserve its unique taste better than exports, and with the growing recognition of gim as a health food, the company plans to actively target the rapidly growing global gim market.

According to related industries on the 3rd, Daesang recently completed the construction of a complex production factory covering about 40,000㎡ (12,000 pyeong) in Hai Duong Province, northern Vietnam, and has begun trial operations. Construction of this factory, which started in April last year, is a complex plant producing various food products, with a total investment cost of 17.5 billion KRW. From the first half of this year, it plans to produce seasoned gim, gim for kimbap (sushi), and salted gim. The annual production volume will reach 200 tons (6 billion KRW).

A Daesang official explained, "When exporting gim in the form of seasoned gim (finished product), quality can deteriorate during transportation due to oxidation caused by cooking oil," adding, "We will sell the highest quality gim through local production."

Daesang's Indonesian factory, which began construction in June 2017, has been producing products since 2018. In the first half of last year, to strengthen quality competitiveness and secure price competitiveness, additional facilities were installed, increasing production capacity from 150 tons to 250 tons (10 billion KRW). The Vietnam factory is Daesang's second gim factory built overseas. Currently, Daesang is the only company producing gim locally overseas.

The Indonesian production volume is sold only locally. Under the brand 'Mamasuka,' the representative product is 'Mamasuka Olive Lunchbox Gim.' As Mamasuka products gained popularity, sales of locally produced products in Indonesia reached 5.4 billion KRW in 2018 and grew more than twice to 11.4 billion KRW last year (as of November). In Korea, it has surpassed the famous Thai gim snack brand 'Tao Kae Noi' and currently ranks first in gim snack product sales in major distribution channels.

A Daesang official explained, "In Indonesia, convenience store-type supermarkets have become the main distribution channels rather than large discount marts. Mamasuka leads Tao Kae Noi in both Indomaret, the largest convenience store chain with about 14,000 stores nationwide, and Alfamart, the second largest."

The reason Daesang targets the gim market focusing on local production is quality. Currently, gim is exported to over 100 countries, with export volume reaching 525.5 million USD (about 626.4 billion KRW) in 2018, nearly doubling in four years and establishing itself as a representative Korean export food. However, despite the encouraging export volume and production, the product's added value is somewhat lower than that of other countries. Korea produces 50% of the world's dried gim, but prices remain at 45% of Japanese gim and 75% of Chinese gim. Therefore, there is a need for systematic quality management to produce high value-added products.

Lee Sang-min, head of the Gim Business Team and Seaweed Inspection Center, said, "We plan to lead the globalization of Korean gim by increasing added value through customized localization strategies considering the characteristics of each country." He emphasized, "We will secure price and quality competitiveness centered on local production bases in Indonesia and Vietnam and plan to expand into Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia as well as the Middle Eastern market." He added, "We will accelerate overseas market penetration by launching customized products based on country-specific localization strategies and entering the B2B raw material market, which was previously unexplored."

Meanwhile, Daesang is actively targeting the global gim market. It exports gim to about 23 countries including China, Indonesia, the United States, Vietnam, and Canada. Global sales reached 19.8 billion KRW in 2018 and 26.1 billion KRW in 2019 (as of November), growing more than 260% compared to 2015. Daesang is also accelerating its entry into the halal market. Currently, it has obtained Indonesian MUI halal certification for five products including seasoned gim and seasoning gim, expanding exports from Indonesia to Southeast Asian countries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.