Stabilization of international prices of wheat and sugar, etc., and forecast of price reductions for confectionery and bakery products
Park Beom-soo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (hereafter referred to as the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), visited the Asan factory of Haitai Confectionery & Foods Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as Haitai Confectionery) on the afternoon of Thursday, September 5, inspected the site, and had time to discuss the company’s difficulties.
This visit is intended to encourage food companies that are contributing to price stability by bearing the burden of increased manufacturing costs, including labor costs, logistics costs, and energy costs, and to listen to and discuss their difficulties.
In fact, in order to join the government’s price stabilization policy, Haitai Confectionery plans to lower the prices of three types of confectionery products whose main ingredients are flour, oil, and sugar, whose international prices are on a downward trend, by 6.7% starting on the 9th of this month. Haitai Confectionery has frozen confectionery prices since May 2022, and lowered the price of its popular confectionery product, “Ivy,” by 10% in July of last year.
At the meeting, Haitai Confectionery suggested the government to provide promotional support such as Halal certification support for entering Islamic markets such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and participation in exhibitions to develop new markets. In response, Vice Minister Park Beom-soo explained that various export support projects are being promoted, such as support for overseas certification registration, hosting of the K-Food Fair, and support for participation in international food exhibitions to expand exports.
Haitai Confectionery CEO Yoon Do-seong said, “In order to provide some comfort to the people who are struggling due to high prices, we have decided to lower the prices of some products, and we plan to continue to do our best to stabilize prices.”
Vice Minister Park Beom-soo encouraged Haitai Confectionery for announcing plans to lower the prices of some of its products despite continued domestic and international uncertainties such as rising management costs, exchange rates, and oil prices, and said, “Going forward, we plan to sequentially visit food companies that contribute to price stability to listen to their difficulties and implement necessary measures, while also actively urging them to cooperate with the government’s price stabilization policy.”
Editor. Hong Se-yeong
