Naju-si Selected for 'Food Tech Research Support Center Construction Public Project'

On the 26th, Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Yoon Byung-tae) announced that it has been finally selected for the ‘Food Tech Research Support Center Construction Contest Project’ hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The city was selected in the field of ‘Food Upcycling,’ one of the 10 core technologies of Food Tech, and a total project cost of 10.5 billion KRW is expected to be invested over three years until 2026.

Aerial view of the Food Upcycling Research Support Center.
Photo by Naju City

Food Upcycling refers to the process of applying new technologies to agricultural, livestock, and food processing by-products or other resources with low commercial value to create high value-added products.

As a means to respond to carbon neutrality and climate change, related industries are already being actively fostered in advanced countries, and it is expected to be a sustainable new growth engine for the food industry, which had an estimated global market size of 110 trillion KRW last year.

The Food Tech Research Support Center will be equipped with facilities and equipment that companies can jointly use and will support prototype development and technology verification for Food Tech companies.

The planned site for the Food Tech Research Support Center project is in the Naju General Industrial Complex area (site area 3,417㎡), with a two-story building and a total floor area of 1,612㎡. It will include spaces for equipment and facilities for prototype production and verification, company office spaces, and research analysis rooms.

This contest project is especially significant as it is the first Food Tech-related contest project targeting local governments since the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs renamed its existing Food Industry Policy Division to the Food Tech Policy Division in 2022 and announced the ‘Food Tech Industry Development Plan.’

To prepare for this contest, the city formed a Food Tech Promotion TF team early last year and has been actively discovering projects to support the industrialization of Food Upcycling.

In particular, continuous requests for national funding, hosting the ‘Industrialization Development Plan Forum,’ conducting the ‘Basic Plan Establishment Service for Research Support Center Construction,’ and signing the ‘Industry-Academia-Government-Research MOU for Building a Food Upcycling Ecosystem’ are among the many efforts made.

Additionally, Naju’s abundant Food Upcycling raw materials, food industry infrastructure, and pre-established cooperative infrastructure with industry, government, academia institutions such as the Korea Food Tech Association also influenced the selection.

The city plans to promote various technology verification projects, including international cooperation projects related to Food Upcycling, centered on the Research Support Center, and expects it to become a core hub of the Food Tech industry cluster in the future.

With the construction of the Research Support Center, economic effects such as the creation of about 280 jobs, commercialization sales of 16.5 billion KRW, and added value of 26 billion KRW are expected by 2029.

Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said, “I am very pleased that Naju City has become the first in the nation to break ground for the Food Tech industry that will lead the future agricultural and food industry,” and added, “We will develop Naju into a differentiated Food Tech cluster by utilizing Naju’s abundant agricultural and livestock products and Food Upcycling infrastructure.”

Naju = Kim Yuk-bong, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy baekok@asiae.co.kr

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