K-food continues the new Middle East boom, proving to be very popular in Saudi Arabia!
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Minister Song Mi-ryeong) and the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (CEO Kim Chun-jin) participated in ‘The Saudi Food Show 2024’ held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, from the 21st to the 23rd and exported $6.5 million. The consultation was successful.
The Riyadh Food Fair is the largest food fair in Saudi Arabia, importing 80% of the country’s food consumption. Although it is a new fair held for the second time this year, over 1,000 F&B companies from 97 countries around the world participated, making it an essential event to seek business opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Corporation formed the ‘Integrated Korea Pavilion’ with 9 excellent agricultural and food exporters, a strawberry promotion center, and a K-Food promotion center, and focused on promoting major export promising products such as health foods, ramen, sauce, and tteokbokki, considering market characteristics.
At the site, various product introductions and tastings were held at the ginseng promotion corner located in front of the K-Food promotion center, attracting the attention of visitors. In particular, exporter Bioara’s ‘Cordyceps sinensis’ product was selected as ‘Best Wellness’ among over 100,000 products exhibited at the expo, proving the export potential of health foods in the Middle East and receiving great attention and favorable reviews from officials.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Corporation have been working hard for a long time to further expand agricultural and food exports in the Middle East through this expo. First, prior to holding the expo, an ‘online consultation session’ was held to attract major buyers to visit the exhibition hall. At the site, we placed sufficient manpower to assist in Arabic consultation, installed a QR code directory book for each company, and worked hard to attract buyers by operating an instant rice cracker experience center to increase the performance of participating companies.
Kwon Oh-yeop, director of export food at the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, said, “Recently, agricultural and food exports are expanding throughout the Middle East, and among them, Saudi Arabia is a noteworthy market with a sharp increase in exports this year.” He added, “We are working hard to ensure that our K-Food can quickly settle in the local market.” “We will mobilize all our marketing know-how and network for new markets,” he said.
Editor Jun Beom
