Lotte Achieves $51 Million in Export Consultations at 'Brand Expo' in New York, USA

Popularity of On-site Events Including K-Cooking Show

Chef Choi Hyun-seok is presenting a K-Cooking Show at the "Korea Brand Expo" held in New York, USA.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Lotte Group's six distribution companies announced on the 25th that they held the 'Korea Brand Expo' export consultation meeting in New York, USA, from the 20th to the 21st (local time) together with the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, recording consultation results of 51.06 million dollars.

The Korea Brand Expo is a representative win-win program that Lotte Home Shopping has been operating since 2016 to connect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling to open sales channels with overseas distributors. The export consultation meeting, which was previously conducted solely by Lotte Home Shopping, has been expanded this month starting in Germany to a group-level overseas sales channel development project for SMEs, involving six distribution affiliates (home shopping, department stores, marts, duty-free shops, Hi-Mart, and Korea Seven). Earlier, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin emphasized win-win cooperation as a social responsibility at the Korea SME Conference in May, stating, “Lotte Holdings and distribution-related affiliates will actively prepare collaboration plans with SMEs.”

The event was held in New York, USA, where K-culture consumption is active, in conjunction with the 'Korea-US Startup Summit' and 'Hallyu Performances.' A total of 120 excellent domestic SMEs specializing in food and beauty products, which attract high interest from overseas consumers, and over 320 global buyers from the US and other countries participated in the online and offline consultation meetings. Due to high local interest, more than twice the number of pre-registered buyers participated.

The event held at Pier 17, located in the southeastern part of Manhattan, New York, included export consultations, product showcases, and K-culture events. At the showcase site, product evaluations were held where participants could directly experience and examine the products. QR codes were attached to each product to allow real-time access to product and company information, and convenience was enhanced by enabling instant matching and online consultations with interested companies through a survey page. For companies unable to attend the expo in person, pre-matched overseas buyers were given opportunities for online video consultations. Additionally, on-site events such as 'Director Cho Sung-ah's K-Makeup Show' and 'Chef Choi Hyun-seok's K-Cooking Show' attracted high interest from local buyers.

A Lotte Home Shopping official said, "We are pleased that the 'Korea Brand Expo' held in New York, USA, where interest in Korean brands is high due to the influence of Hallyu content, achieved results beyond expectations," adding, "We will develop various export support programs focusing on promising export regions in the future to provide practical help for domestic SMEs to open overseas sales channels."

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