Lotte Mart Targets Indonesian Market with 'K-Food'... Launches Food Innovation Lab

On the 14th of last month, a chef affiliated with FIL is receiving recipe training at the FIL laboratory located in Pasar Lebo, Indonesia. (Photo by Lotte Mart)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Lotte Mart is entering Indonesia, where the 'K-Food' craze is booming.

According to Lotte Mart on the 6th, the Food Innovation Lab (FIL), specializing in the development of Korean home meal replacements (HMR), was launched last month.

At Indonesia FIL, six category-specific professional chefs will design recipes for various products including Korean food, and product developers will select partners to develop home meal replacement products such as traditional Korean dishes.

The six Indonesian chefs visited Lotte Mart headquarters in Korea last May for the launch of FIL and received training on over 70 Korean menu items and self-developed recipes for a month. They also completed training on original recipes including hot dogs, tteokbokki, Lotte Mart’s own pizza brand ‘Cheese & Dough’ pizza, and bakery items.

On the 13th of last month, Chef Kang Leo, who serves as the center director, personally visited Indonesia to provide consulting and training. He taught recipes for traditional Korean dishes such as japchae and royal court tteokbokki, as well as Korean-style global dishes frequently featured in Hallyu content, including K-Chinese food like gancho shrimp and yangjangpi.

Song Yanghyun, head of Lotte Mart Indonesia Wholesale Business Division, said, "Through the excellent products developed at FIL, we will not only gain recognition in Indonesia but also establish ourselves as the top grocery specialty store in Indonesia. We will strive to introduce diverse Korean food cultures to Indonesian customers by launching high-quality HMR products they have never tasted before."

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