The Korea-China free trade agreement to be formally signed later this year, provides an opportunity for Korean food products to expand into the world’s second largest economy, said the head of the state-run agency to promote agro-food products.“I am confident that food can form a market as huge as electronic devices and automobiles, not to mention its scope for speedy growth,” Kim Jae-soo, president and chief executive of Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., or aT, said in an interview wit

May 25, 2015

Seoul Food 2015, one of the four largest food fairs in Asia, drew about 627 foreign food and related businesses and 3,300 foreign spectators, shedding a new light on South Korea’s exporters.Sponsored by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the expo ended its four-day run from May 12-15 at KINTEX in Ilsan, boasting record-high attendance, export consultations worth $560 million and initial export installments worth $7.8 million.For Korean businesses that are not export-oriented, however,

May 22, 2015

Seoul Food 2015, Asia’s third-largest food industry exhibition, kicked off on Tuesday, welcoming the largest number of Chinese participants since the event’s launch in 1983, thanks to the imminent sealing of the Korea-China free trade agreement. Theming “Wave on the Table,” the four-day convention attracted global buyers to KINTEX in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, for cost-saving and healthy products, machinery and solutions in food technology, food packaging, hotel restaurant and catering technolog

May 12, 2015

The nation’s tax revenue from tobacco sales has increased in the first four months of this year, despite a fall in cigarette sales following a tax hike on tobacco products, government officials said Sunday. In the January-April period, the tax revenue from cigarette sales jumped 600 billion won ($550 million) from a year ago, officials said. However, sales fell to 180 million packs in January from 400 million packs in December of last year. In April alone, the tax revenue from tobacco sales grew

May 10, 2015

In such a conglomerate-dominated Korean economy, small and medium-sized subcontractors and ventures cannot thrive without a healthy business-to-business payment system. Without one, the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis doomed countless SMEs to bankruptcy.“Most unfair practices in business come from inappropriate payment systems,” said Rha Moon-soo, president and chief executive of the Korea Electronic Finance Clearing Institute, in an interview with The Korea Herald last we

April 30, 2015

Korea will kick off Seoul Food 2015, Asia’s third-largest food industry exhibition, next month at KINTEX, in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, trade promotion officials said Wednesday. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said the four-day convention, themed “Wave on the Table,” aims at sharing the latest innovations to the healthy, modern diet.“The exhibition itself is like a huge table, featuring the latest wave of changing consumer trends,” said an official at KOTRA, the event organizer.The e

April 29, 2015

A top Malaysian official expressed hope that South Korea would import more palm oil products from the Southeast Asian country.“Korea is a very strategic trade partner and an important market for Malaysian palm oil,” said Dato’ Ar. Wan Khair-il Anuar, Malaysian Palm Oil Board chairman in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on Monday.  Dato’ Ar. Wan Khair-il Anuar, chairman of Malaysian (Palm Oil Board)The high-level official, who is also a member of parliament representing Kuala Kangsar,

April 28, 2015

Like many Korean nine-to-fivers, Kim, an official at a big name conglomerate, had trouble sparing time in his day to visit banks for a loan. He was afraid to give the wrong impression to his boss by leaving his desk unattended, but taking a whole day off for a banking service did not make sense either. After days of delay, Kim signed up for the “business consultant service” on Standard Chartered Bank Korea’s website to have the bank visit him instead. The next day, Kim and SC Bank consultants, e

April 23, 2015

YANGSAN, South Gyeongsang Province ― Philip Morris International Korea expects its cumulative cigarette exports to reach 20 billion sticks this year, after securing larger markets in Japan and Australia.Like its competitors KT&G, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International, PMIK chose to expand its export of cigarettes manufactured in the local factory in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province. “Increasing exports is a key alternative to make up for the domestic losses,” Kim Byung-cheol

April 20, 2015