Lotte Records $62 Million in Oceania Export Consultations with SMEs

Lotte-Korea Brand Expo in Sydney, Australia
150 Local Buyers Visited, 595 Cumulative Consultations

Lotte announced on the 22nd that it held the 'Lotte-Korea Brand Expo' in Sydney, Australia from the 18th to the 21st in collaboration with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) explore overseas markets, achieving consultation results worth 62 million USD.

(From left) Dong-gyu Lee, Head of Communications Division at Lotte Homeshopping; Seong-jun Ahn, Head of Consumer Goods and Bio Division at Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA); Sung-joo Shin, Executive Director of Policy Support Team at Lotte Holdings; Tae-woo Lee, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Sydney; Kylie Bell, Head of Trade and Investment Group at NSW Investment Office; Heung-won Kang, President of the Korean Association in Sydney, Australia; Chang-eun Park, Director of KOTRA Trade Center, are posing for a commemorative photo after the opening ceremony of the 'Lotte-Korea Brand Expo' held at Sydney City Hall on the 19th [Photo by Lotte Homeshopping].

The Korea Brand Expo began in 2016 as a win-win program by Lotte Home Shopping to support domestic SMEs entering overseas markets, and since last year, it has expanded into an integrated group-level project involving Lotte Holdings and its distribution affiliates. This year, not only Lotte’s distribution companies but also its food companies participated, strengthening the group’s win-win business efforts. Australia is a region where demand for K-consumer goods is rapidly increasing due to the popularity of Hallyu content. One hundred domestic SMEs hoping to enter the Australian market participated in the export consultation meeting. One hundred fifty buyers from the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand) gathered, with a cumulative total of 595 consultations and consultation amounts reaching 62 million USD.

The opening ceremony held on the 19th at Sydney City Hall was attended by Lotte Group officials including Shin Sung-joo, Executive Director of the Policy Support Team at Lotte Holdings, Lee Dong-gyu, Head of Communications at Lotte Home Shopping, as well as Lee Tae-woo, Consul General of Korea in Sydney, Ahn Sung-jun, Head of Consumer Goods and Bio Division at KOTRA, Kang Heung-won, President of the Korean Association in Sydney, and Kylie Bell, Head of Trade and Investment Group at the NSW Investment Office.

At the export consultation site, local buyers were introduced to Korean food such as gukbap (rice soup) and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), as well as K-beauty products including serums, creams, and hair styling irons. A showcase area was set up to exhibit products from 110 SMEs. A product promotion event was held at the outdoor plaza of the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal, providing a space where global tourists could experience and purchase SME products. Some companies’ products sold out early, receiving great responses. Various Hallyu cultural performances such as K-food cooking shows, K-pop cover dance, and Korean traditional dance attracted many visitors. Promotion activities for the 2030 Busan World Expo bid were also conducted. Using Lotte Home Shopping’s character 'Belligom,' visitors took instant photos at a photo wall, drawing attention from attendees.

Shin Sung-joo, Executive Director of the Policy Support Team at Lotte Holdings, said, "Through the Lotte-Korea Brand Expo, an integrated win-win program of Lotte Group, we hope that excellent domestic SMEs will thrive in the global market, and we will continue to support and strive for a path of mutual growth together with Lotte."

Meanwhile, Lotte Home Shopping has held the Korea Brand Expo a total of 16 times, with cumulative consultation cases reaching 8,513 and export consultation amounts totaling approximately 1.3 trillion KRW.

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