Wando Seafood Sold Out at Korean Festival in LA, USA

Signed Export Contract Worth 1 Million USD with the United States

Wando County held a special product promotion event at the Korean Festival in Los Angeles, USA. (Photo by Wando County)

[Wando=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, held a ‘Wando Specialty Products Promotion Exhibition’ at the 49th LA Korean Festival, which took place over four days from the 22nd to the 25th, resulting in a complete sell-out of products and the signing of a $1 million seafood export contract.

The Wando seafood export contract ceremony was held on the 23rd at the Home Shopping World LA store in the United States, where a four-party business agreement was made among Wando-gun, Haesung International located in Wando-gun, Home Shopping World in the U.S., and Gyeongnam Trading Co., Ltd. to ensure smooth distribution and sales of Wando seafood within the U.S. market.

The promotion exhibition was hosted by Wando-gun and organized by the Jeollanam-do Small and Medium Business Job Economy Promotion Agency, with participation from eight seafood export companies based in Wando-gun.

For the promotion exhibition, the county exported $190,000 worth of Wando specialty products in June, showcasing a variety of processed seafood products such as frozen abalone, flounder porridge, gim (seaweed), miyeok (wakame), dashima (kelp), and assorted seaweed, all of which sold out.

In particular, time was set aside for one-on-one business consultations with local buyers to explore expanding seafood sales channels.

The companies participating in the promotion exhibition included Haesung International, Wando Segyero Fisheries, Wando Mom Fishery Cooperative Corporation, Badamyeongga, Wando Sea Food, Heungil Food, Nuri Fishery Cooperative Corporation, and Dashima Abalone Fisheries.

Meanwhile, despite global adversities such as the COVID-19 pandemic and logistics crises, seafood exports to the U.S. from Wando-gun are progressing smoothly this year.

According to data from the Korea International Trade Association, as of July 2022, export amounts for dashima and seasoned gim increased threefold and twofold respectively compared to the same month the previous year, reaching $590,000 and $400,000, while live abalone and frozen abalone exports also rose by more than 7% year-on-year, exporting $990,000 and $620,000 worth respectively.

This success is attributed to annual online export consultation meetings for home meal replacements, continuous operation of export consultation offices, regular export consultations inviting overseas buyers, active overseas promotional events and support, and one-day delivery services in the U.S. market.

Additionally, media reports both domestically and internationally have highlighted Wando abalone’s excellence in boosting immunity, and NASA released satellite images of Wando’s seaweed farms, reporting that Wando has optimal conditions for seaweed aquaculture and that it is being farmed in an eco-friendly manner, which has had a significant positive impact.

Park Ji-hoon, CEO of Haesung International, which introduced the new premium flounder porridge product at the promotion exhibition, said, “The response from local customers visiting the promotion exhibition to Wando products was better than before, and many said they trust and can eat Wando products with confidence, which made me proud.”

A county official stated, “Through this visit to the U.S., we were once again able to feel the status of Wando-gun as the clean sea capital of Korea and the number one seafood region. We will continue to do our best in product development and support for promotional events so that excellent Wando seafood can captivate the tastes of Korean residents and people worldwide.”

Meanwhile, the LA Korean Festival is the largest event in the Korean American community, operating about 270 promotional booths this year and attracting the highest number of visitors ever.

Wando=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil alwatros@asiae.co.kr