FAS/Seoul Monitoring of Media Reporting on Agricultural Issues

Today's Date: Thursday,  December 23, 2021

For Coverage: December 20 ~ 23, 2021

Retail Industry Expects High Demand for Home Party Products

https://news.naver.com/main/read.naver?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=101&sid2=310&oid=003&aid=0010902817

Summary:  As strict social distancing regulations are back again due to the COVID Omicron variant, retailers expect that consumers will stay at home rather than dine out during the holiday season.  Retailers are seeing increased sales in wine, cake, and home meal replacement(HMR) products.  Moreover, sales of dishes, cooking utensils, and mini ovens for one person household have increased.  Emart will start a promotion for Christmas home parties.  It will feature heart-shaped steak, tomahawk steak with cooking timer, and ribs.  Homeplus is holding the American Steak Show promotion along with USMEF.  Homeplus imported beef for steak through air freight so that consumers can enjoy more fresh products.  Galleria Department Store will have a pop-up store with eight different dessert brands, such as Michelin 2-starred Jungsik Café, popular brunch and wine bar Jade and Water, and French dessert restaurant Yaan Couvreur.

Seven Eleven Launches a Vegetarian Brand ‘Grain Great’

https://news.naver.com/main/read.naver?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=101&sid2=310&oid=366&aid=0000782020

Summary:  Seven Eleven announced that it will start a vegetarian brand called Grain Great, launching triangle gimbop, pasta, and mandoo gratin.  The triangle gimbop uses soybean based meat, the pasta uses vegan ragu sauce, and the grain mandoo gratin uses tofu, onion, cabbage, and chives.  The three new products were co-developed with Bright Belly, the vegetarian brand of Organica.

Import Inspection on Canadian Beef Stopped due to BSE Case in Alberta

http://www.foodnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=95099

Summary:  The Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced that it confirmed a BSE case at a cattle farm in Alberta, Canada and will suspend all import quarantine inspections for Canadian beef as of December 21, 2021, based on bilateral animal health requirements.  MAFRA requested the Canadian government provide epidemiological information on the outbreak of BSE along with expected quarantine measures.  MAFRA will then determine whether there is a risk to public health and when to resume imports.  Canada has exported 10,676 tons of beef to Korea from January to November this year, accounting for 2.6% of Korea’s total beef imports.

FreshEasy Launches ‘Alternative Meat Meal Kit’

https://news.naver.com/main/read.naver?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=101&sid2=310&oid=018&aid=0005109753

Summary:  FreshEasy announced that it will start an alternative meat business, launching its ‘Alternative Meat Meal Kit.’  The meal kit targets flexible vegetarians, so called ‘flexiterians,’ in Korea, which are estimated to total 2.5 million.  FreshEasy’s meal kit is developed in partnership with the Australian meat alternative producer v2food.  According to Korea Agro‑Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, the global meat alternative market is 6.2 trillion won.  According to Euromonitor, the Korean alternative meat market reached 15 billion won in 2021, up 35% from 2020.  Four types of meal kits are available: Golden Curry Hamburger Steak, Ragu Pasta, Soymilk Mushroom Risotto, and Chipotle Chopsteak.  FreshEasy plans to expand the product portfolio to different cuisines such as Korean, Chinese, and Western food.

Lotte Mart Jamsil Branch Goes Through a Renewal and Will Open a New Store Called “Zetaplex”

https://news.naver.com/main/read.naver?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=101&sid2=310&oid=031&aid=0000643300

Summary:  Lotte Mart announced that it will go through a major renewal and reopen as “Zetaplex.”  The new store will have specialized stores dedicated for market, home/living, pet, and groceries.  As consumers are becoming more used to online shopping these days, Lotte Mart decided to go through the renewal to bring back the customers to the retail mart.  The strategy intends to attract not only grocery shoppers, but also shoppers looking for wine, home/living, and pet items.  Seventy percent of the floor space on the first floor will be a wine store called ‘Bottle Bunker.’  The size of the wine store is 1,322㎡, which is the largest in Korea.  The wine selection includes more than 4,000 wines ranging from premium selections like Romanee Conti to $10 value-wines.  The store will also have a tasting tab where consumers can try 80 different types of wine.  Zetaplex also has the largest grocery store.  It will have 30% more products than average retail stores.  The store will have the largest salad zone with more than 150 products, an aquarium, a lamb barbeque restaurant, a charcuterie section, a vegan food section, and a Spanish food section.  Zetaplex also has a home product store called ‘Room X Home Lab’ and a pet product store called ‘Colioli.’

SSG.com Expands the Dawn Bread Delivery Service Nationwide

https://news.naver.com/main/read.naver?mode=LS2D&mid=shm&sid1=101&sid2=310&oid=011&aid=0003998722

Summary:  SSG.com announced that it will expand its dawn bread delivery service nationwide using 81 Emart PP centers.  Emart started the dawn bread delivery service online using its baking center at ‘Neo003’ in December 2019.  Then it expanded to 11 Emart stores in September 2020.  Using the database developed over the last four months, the dawn bread delivery service offers 11 different breads including low temperature ripening loaf, buckwheat walnut loaf, double cheese bagel, butter croissant, pain au chocolat, etc.  Sang Yoon Kim, the manager of the SSG.com Deli Section, responded that the dawn bread delivery service is a collaboration effort between SSG.com, Emart, and Sinsegye Food.  The three companies under the Sinsegye Group hope to collaborate in the following years to dominate the on- and off-line retail sector.

The U.S. Soybean Association Held 2021 U.S. Soybean Sustainability Awards on December 15
http://www.foodnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=95041
Summary:  The American Soybean Association (ASA) held the American Soybean Sustainability Awards on December 15th.  The event announced the significance of sustainability, which is one of the world’s megatrends.  The sustainability logo represents U.S. soybean producers’ use of sustainable methods.  The award ceremony was held for the first time in Korea to commemorate using a sustainable certification logo for Lotte Food’s high oleic acid soybean oil products.  ASA is promoting a sustainable certification logo on product packaging to introduce sustainable production methods for soybeans.  ASA has also been carrying out an “American soybean responsible health of the world” campaign since September.