Six Gyeongbuk Seafood Companies Participate in Asia's Largest Bangkok Food Expo... $12.7 Million in Export Consultations

Gyeongbuk Province participated in the 2024 Bangkok Food Exhibition in Thailand from May 28 to June 1, together with six local seafood food companies, to promote Gyeongbuk seafood and pioneer new export channels in Southeast Asia.

This exhibition was a large-scale event with over 3,000 companies from 52 countries worldwide, including 270 companies from Korea. It is one of the world's top three food exhibitions and the largest B2B food exhibition in ASEAN. Alongside the Seoul Food Exhibition and Tokyo Food Exhibition, it is recognized as one of Asia's top three food events and serves as a gateway to the ASEAN single market of 600 million people, thanks to agreements like the Korea-ASEAN FTA.

Food Exhibition Held in Bangkok, Thailand

At this exhibition, Gyeongbuk Province operated a joint promotional booth for Gyeongbuk seafood with the six companies, hosting various events such as tasting sessions and special sales to showcase the excellence of Gyeongbuk seafood to local visitors. In particular, they conducted consultations and matchmaking sessions with professional overseas buyers, carrying out comprehensive marketing activities.

The export consultations resulted in 217 meetings worth $12.7 million, with contract amounts reaching $730,000 (KRW 900 million) and on-site sales amounting to KRW 50 million. Moving forward, Gyeongbuk Province and the participating companies plan to thoroughly analyze and review the consultation cases to actively pursue additional export contracts.

To boost seafood exports, Gyeongbuk Province announced a comprehensive plan for a Blue Food Export Transformation in September 2023. In March this year, they established the Gyeongbuk Seafood Food Export Companies Association, led by around 30 young entrepreneurs and second-generation family business owners in the seafood sector, and have been accelerating the development of various content and technologies.

Lee Kyungon, Director of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Bureau of Gyeongbuk Province, said, "We will continue to implement various policies such as supporting national certification projects and participation in overseas exhibitions to promote seafood exports. We will also cooperate with export-related organizations such as KOTRA and aT to ensure that Gyeongbuk seafood becomes a leading force in K-Blue Food."