Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean food continued to captivate the palates of global consumers. As of end-November, exports of Korean agricultural and food products, including kimchi and instant noodles, rose 6.84 percent on-year to $6.8 billion.

Behind the growth is the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp, frequently referred to as aT, a state-run agency tasked with promoting Korean food overseas.

With major international food fairs canceled, the company organized online events to connect local producers to foreign buyers, starting with China in April and expanding to more countries, including Singapore, Japan, Russia, Brazil and the US.

A total of 158 buyers and over 200 local businesses participated in these virtual K-Food fairs, which resulted in business consultations worth $300 million, aT said.

In October, the annual Buy Korean Food, the largest K-Food fair organized by aT, moved online, inviting 62 major buyers from 62 countries, including procurement managers of leading e-commerce platforms in major markets. The three-day event led to business consultations worth $160 million.

The organization‘s branches overseas also shifted their marketing strategy to focus on online channels which led to such feats as the opening of Korean-food-only malls on Tmall, China’s e-commerce platform run by Alibaba, and Russia’s second-largest online shopping mall OZON. East Asian e-commerce giant Shoppee also held a K-Food fair from Oct. 12 until the end of last month.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)