Hyundai Green Food Introduces Festival 'Hwacheon Sancheoneo' as Group Meal Menu

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Hyundai Green Food has rolled up its sleeves to revive the local economy of Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, which is struggling due to the cancellation of the ‘Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival.’ The company decided to purchase a large quantity of Sancheoneo (Korean mountain trout) that had no sales channels and provide it as a group meal menu.

Hyundai Green Food, a comprehensive food company affiliated with Hyundai Department Store Group, announced that it purchased 2.4 tons of festival-use Sancheoneo (equivalent to about 8,000 live fish) from Hwacheon County and will sequentially provide ‘grilled Sancheoneo’ to about 30 group meal service sites from the 17th until the end of this month.

A Hyundai Green Food official explained, “Due to the impact of COVID-19, the scheduled ‘Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival’ was canceled this year, and we heard that Hwacheon County was having difficulties in consumption and securing sales channels for the pre-prepared Sancheoneo, so we urgently decided to purchase the fish. The live Sancheoneo will undergo preprocessing and processing steps such as removing the head and internal organs before being offered as a group meal menu.”

Hyundai Green Food plans to cook the Sancheoneo on a direct-fire grill instead of the usual oven method to preserve the fish’s original flavor. To eliminate the unique fishy smell of Sancheoneo, they have also developed four types of grilling sauces: Cheongyang-style (Kkanpung sauce made with Cheongyang chili peppers), sweet and sour, teriyaki, and wasabi.

In addition to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo, Hyundai Green Food plans to purchase other local specialty products that are struggling to find sales channels due to festival cancellations and use them as food ingredients. Previously, when the ‘Chungbuk Gocho Festival’ in Goesan was canceled last year, Hyundai Green Food purchased 12 tons of dried chili peppers for the festival, and in 2019, they purchased 100 tons of onions, which had plummeted in price due to oversupply, for use as food ingredients.

A Hyundai Green Food official said, “With this Sancheoneo purchase, we can support the expansion of sales channels for specialty products while providing distinctive menus to our existing group meal service customers. We will continue to make efforts to provide practical help to local communities and create mutually beneficial outcomes.”

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