Daesang Starts Operation at US LA Factory... Leading Kimchi Globalization

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Daesang announced on the 29th that it has completed a large-scale kimchi factory in the United States and has begun full-scale production.

The Daesang factory was built on a site of 10,000㎡ (3,000 pyeong) in the City of Industry near Los Angeles (LA), California. With an investment of about 20 billion KRW, it is equipped with manufacturing lines capable of producing 2,000 tons of kimchi annually, raw material warehouses, and other infrastructure. Daesang is the only Korean food company with large-scale kimchi production facilities in the United States. Daesang plans to sequentially expand automation equipment and facilities to achieve annual sales of 100 billion KRW in the local food business in the U.S. by 2025.

The LA factory is Daesang’s tenth overseas production base. Since entering Indonesia in 1973, Daesang currently operates food, bio, and starch-sugar factories in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, and other countries. The LA factory is the first to be built outside Asia, and Daesang plans to efficiently respond to the rapidly growing kimchi demand in the U.S. market and expand localized kimchi supply to Western regions such as Europe, Canada, and Oceania.

The kimchi produced at Daesang’s LA factory includes a total of 10 varieties reflecting local U.S. food culture and trends, such as Jongga Original Kimchi, gluten-free kimchi, vegan kimchi, white kimchi, beet kimchi, pickled radish, seasoned kimchi, and cabbage kimchi. The kimchi brand distributed in the U.S. is also applied as ‘Jongga,’ which is easy for locals to pronounce. In addition to kimchi, six types of O’food gochujang, developed in a thin sauce-like form similar to hot sauce to suit local tastes, are also produced.

Jongga Kimchi is currently available in more than 40 countries worldwide, including the Americas, Europe, Oceania, China, Japan, and Singapore. The U.S. is the second-largest export market for kimchi after Japan, with increasing demand every year, and the consumer base is rapidly shifting from Korean and Asian communities to local Americans. The company also plans to continuously expand its presence in large stores such as Walmart and Costco, which are popular among local Americans.

Lim Jeong-bae, CEO of Daesang, said, “The U.S. market holds significant importance as a forward base for the globalization of kimchi.” He added, “With the establishment of a local factory, we can flexibly respond to global logistics disruptions and strengthen research and development of products tailored to local tastes. We are also considering plans to expand the factory in the future.”

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