Busan City Holds 'Coffee City Busan Forum Launch Ceremony'

Mayor Park Hyung-jun and over 100 stakeholders from industry, academia, research, and government

Proposing coffee industry issues, discovering new policies, and seeking solutions

On the 10th at 4 PM, Busan City will hold the launch ceremony of the ‘Coffee City Busan Forum’ (hereinafter referred to as the Forum) at ‘Momos’ Roastery & Coffee Bar (located in Bongnae-dong, Yeongdo-gu) with about 100 participants including industry, academia, research, government, coffee-related associations, and industry stakeholders to promote sustainable growth and ecosystem creation in the coffee industry.

Busan City Hall.

Momos Coffee is the first company nationwide to receive the ‘Roaster of the Year’ award at the 2022 Sprudge Awards (an award ceremony by a U.S. coffee specialty media / the Academy Awards of the coffee industry).

As the domestic and international coffee markets continue to grow and develop, Busan serves as a logistics hub where over 93% of domestic coffee products are imported. It also boasts excellent location and human resources, having produced the country’s first winner of the ‘World Barista Championship (WBC)’ and multiple winners of the ‘World Coffee Championship (WCC)’ from Busan, demonstrating its potential to grow into a global coffee city.

As of 2022, out of the total coffee imports (green beans, roasted beans, and others) of 188,000 tons, 174,000 tons (92.5%) were imported through Busan Port.

Busan has produced champions such as Jeon Ju-yeon, the 2019 World Barista Champion; Chu Kyung-ha, the 2021 World Cup Tasters Champion; third-place winner Joo Sang-min; and Moon Heon-gwan, the 2022 World Cup Tasters Champion.

Accordingly, since 2021, Busan City has been promoting projects to foster the coffee industry, including brand development, festival support, research and development, and certification support. To facilitate full-scale discussions and cooperation, the ‘Coffee City Busan Forum’ was established and its launch ceremony is being held.

The Forum’s co-organizing chairpersons are Mayor Park Hyung-joon, City Council Chairman Ahn Seong-min, and Busan Ilbo President Kim Jin-su. The organization is structured as a consultative body including advisory committees, an executive committee, and subcommittees.

The secretariat is operated by Busan Technopark, which is responsible for establishing a value chain cooperation system among industry, academia, research, and government, identifying and resolving coffee industry issues by seven subcommittees, and discovering new policy projects to seek ways to develop the local coffee industry.

The launch ceremony will proceed in the following order: ▲Opening remarks by Park Hyung-joon, the organizing chairperson and Mayor of Busan ▲Declaration of cooperation for the development of the Coffee City Busan Forum ▲Coffee talk concert featuring the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) director, coffee industry representatives, and coffee champions ▲Coffee lecture by Moon Heon-gwan, the 2022 World Cup Tasters Champion.

Mayor Park Hyung-joon stated, “Busan’s future depends on discovering and nurturing new growth engine industries. Today’s launch ceremony of the Coffee City Busan Forum expresses our determination to foster the coffee industry as a new growth engine industry. Busan City will do its utmost to nurture the coffee industry so that Busan can leap from a ‘domestic coffee city with potential’ to a ‘world-class coffee city.’”

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