Creating Abalone and Oyster as 'Star Foods'... Targeting $4.5 Billion Blue Food Exports by 2027

The government will select oysters, abalone, and other items as star products for support, while nurturing promising items such as salmon, fish cake, and seaweed as preliminary products with growth potential.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced the "Global Market Leading K-Bluefood Export Strategy" at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting and Export Investment Measures Meeting. Recently, seafood has been redefined as "Bluefood," gaining attention as a sustainable and healthy future food resource.

The government aims to become a leading Bluefood nation and achieve seafood export sales of $4.5 billion by 2027.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

First, oysters, abalone, and others will be newly selected as star products and supported to achieve $100 million in exports. Salmon, fish cake, seaweed, and other items with growth potential will be selected as preliminary products and nurtured. A customized strategy will be established to support star preliminary products from commercialization to export. In the case of abalone, Taiwan and Vietnam will focus on exporting live abalone for gifts and dining, while Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore will target processed abalone products.

The competitiveness of existing core products such as gim (seaweed) and tuna, which have export sales exceeding $600 million, will be continuously strengthened. Gim will differentiate quality competitiveness by type, such as dried gim and seasoned gim, and plans to enhance quality competitiveness through the establishment of smart processing systems and development of new products tailored to export markets. Tuna will secure a fishing base by strengthening official development assistance (ODA) and negotiation power in international fisheries organizations.

In line with changing consumer trends, high value-added seafood products such as convenience foods and health functional foods will be developed. Areas near ports with good raw material supply and logistics environments will be designated as "Seafood Export Promotion Zones," linking import, processing, and export, to serve as export hubs.

The seafood export logistics network and cold chain will be expanded, and local sales channels such as online and dining markets will be diversified to support stable exports. Additionally, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises with $10 million in export sales will be increased from the current 63 to 100 through exclusive seafood company funds, customized export vouchers by growth stage, and local export support.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will also operate a "Seafood Export One Team" in the public-private cooperation dimension. Minister Cho Seung-hwan of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said, "We will strengthen comprehensive support based on this strategy so that our companies can grow into global seafood companies."

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