Pohang City Opens Food Tech Learning Center... Leading Advanced Technology Education and Industry

Urban Regeneration Project: Integrated Educational and Cultural Space to Boost Local Foodtech

Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration in Foodtech Education... Building a Future Food Industry City

Pohang City opened the ‘Food Tech Learning Center’ at the Pohang Kumtree Center on the 13th.

On the 13th, a commemorative photo was taken at the opening ceremony of the Food Tech Learning Center at the Pohang Kkumtree Center.

The opening ceremony was attended by Mayor Lee Kangdeok, City Council Chairman Kim Ilman, representatives from Neuromeka, POSTECH, and around 70 food and food tech industry stakeholders, who celebrated the launch of the Food Tech Learning Center.

The event began with a report on the purpose of establishing the center, followed by a demonstration of food tech equipment by Professor Park Juhong from the Department of Food Tech at POSTECH, and concluded with a discussion among participants on the future direction of food tech development.

The Food Tech Learning Center, as part of an urban regeneration project, will be operated using Neuromeka’s robotic coffee machine technology with advisory support from the Department of Food Tech at POSTECH.

In particular, it is planned to be established as a future-oriented, integrated educational and cultural space for food tech, a new local industry that combines food and advanced technology.

The city recognizes that strengthening educational infrastructure for nurturing advanced future talent is crucial to improving local living conditions. Accordingly, the Food Tech Learning Center will offer food tech robot coding education primarily to youth, and will also provide customized programs for seniors, people with disabilities, and other groups by utilizing local resources such as POSTECH and the Youth Center.

In particular, the city plans to focus on food tech education for vulnerable groups such as youth and the elderly, support the digital transformation of the food industry, and actively seek to secure related national funding.

The Food Tech Learning Center will undergo a trial operation until the end of this year and is scheduled to begin full-scale operations early next year.

Food tech is a promising new industry that combines food and advanced technology. As of 2020, the global food tech market was estimated at approximately $554.2 billion (about 665 trillion KRW), with the domestic market at about 61 trillion KRW, and is showing an annual growth rate of over 30%.

Since last year, Pohang City, in collaboration with Gyeongbuk Province, has achieved significant milestones in preemptively capturing the food tech market, including the selection of POSTECH’s food tech contract department, winning a Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs food tech research support center project, and the launch of the Korea Food Tech Association’s Gyeongbuk-Daegu branch.

Mayor Lee Kangdeok stated, “The opening of the Food Tech Learning Center marks an important starting point for the joint growth of the region and the food tech industry,” and added, “By expanding advanced technology education to address population aging and low birth rates, we will lead the way in establishing Pohang as a leading city in the food tech industry.”