Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Holds 'K-Food+' Export Consultation Meeting... Participants from 40 Countries Worldwide

'K-Food+ Overseas Buyer Invitation Export Consultation' from 19th to 21st

The government is organizing a platform to expand exports of 'K-Food Plus (K-Food+)', with participation from 456 overseas buyers from 40 countries and domestic export companies. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 19th that it will hold the '2023 K-Food+ Overseas Buyer Invitation Export Consultation' at the aT Center in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, until the 21st.

This export consultation will be held on the largest scale since the COVID-19 period, with a total of 456 companies from 40 countries, including Korea (136 overseas buyers and 320 domestic export companies). The government aims to achieve $13.5 billion in K-Food+ exports this year and launched the K-Food+ Export Expansion Headquarters in January. K-Food+ refers to K-Food, which means Korean agricultural and food products, plus (+) intelligent farms, agricultural machinery, and other items, aiming to foster export expansion and develop it as a strategic export industry.

In the agricultural and food sector, 108 buyers from 33 major markets including ASEAN, Greater China, North America, Latin America, and Europe, along with 242 export companies, will participate. In the upstream and downstream industries, 28 buyers and 78 export companies will take part.

Before the consultation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs identified the items of interest to overseas buyers and provided this information to export companies. It also arranged online pre-meetings between companies to support actual export contracts during the consultation period. Additionally, on the last day of the consultation, overseas buyers will have the opportunity to visit domestic production sites of fresh agricultural products such as strawberries and tomatoes, as well as processed foods like ginseng products and kimchi, to potentially increase exports of these items in the future.

Meanwhile, on the first day of the consultation, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will preside over the 2nd meeting of the 'K-Food+ Export Expansion Headquarters' with 22 participants, including representatives from major food companies, upstream and downstream industry companies such as smart farms and agricultural machinery, and heads of related organizations, in connection with the export consultation.

At this meeting, export trends and future plans by company will be discussed, and support measures for field difficulties and suggestions identified through interviews and meetings with over 170 companies since the launch of the Export Expansion Headquarters will be explained. Key topics include ▲expanding overseas marketing using the Korean Wave ▲supporting domestic and international logistics and stable supply of raw agricultural products ▲diversifying export markets through discovering new trading partners ▲expanding exports of upstream and downstream industries ▲policy financial funds (2.2 trillion KRW), and innovation growth funds (3 trillion KRW).

Jung Hwang-geun, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, “Through this export consultation, we hope to actively introduce promising export products and provide an opportunity for our export companies to enter overseas markets more broadly.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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