ATO-KAFI Annual Hiking Event @ Chung-Gye Mountain, Seoul November 6, 2015

ATO and Korean Association of Food Importers (KAFI) co-hosted an annual hiking event to mountain Chung-Gye, Seoul on November 6. Over 40 industry contacts that represent some of leading food importing companies in Korea attended the hiking and dinner program. Many of the industry contacts were also those who participated in buying mission programs to the United States that ATO organized in the past. Representatives of several USDA cooperator offices in Korea also joined the event. This year with challenges like the strong U.S. dollar, impact of MERs on the Korean economy and the U.S. West Coast dock worker strike, the participants had plenty to talk about. While the event also served as a good networking opportunity for the industry to share new business ideas and market intelligence, it also served to forge friendships.

California Wine Institute Trade Mission to Seoul, Conrad Hotel, Seoul / October 12-13, 2015

A group of 27 California wine companies traveled to Seoul, Korea on October 11-14 under the annual California Wine Institute (CWI) Asia Trade Mission. This Annual CWI trade mission has played an instrumental role over the years in bringing California vintners and the Korean wine trade together under the goal of increasing the demand for California wine and promoting an understanding of California wine culture to the Korean trade. This year the CWI trade mission provided a premium consumer tasting event, an in-depth seminar on Lodi AVA region in California, and a large-scale trade tasting event. With the increased interest in California wine in the market, all the events enjoyed a heavy traffic of attendees and generated serious dialogues between the California vintners and Korean buyers. Ross Kreamer, Agricultural Minister Counselor of the U.S. Embassy Seoul, who delivered an welcome remarks at the opening ceremony, pointed out that CWI's continued support of the Korean market should help generate new export opportunity for the California wine industry. American wine exports to Korea, over 90 percent of which is from California, this year through August grew 10 percent in value compared to the same period of last year. For more detailed information about the Korean wine market, please refer to the Korea Wine Market Report published by ATO Seoul (available from ATO Seoul homepage under Market Report section).

Great American Culinary Camp Seoul, September 9, 2015

Great American Culinary Camp 2015, co-hosted by ATO Seoul and Korean Alumni Association of the Culinary Institute of America (KACIA) on September 9 in Millennium Hilton Seoul, successfully promoted the value, quality and diversity of American agricultural products to key decision makers of the Korean food service industry. A project team of four talented young chefs under KACIA presented an insightful presentation about American restaurant industry trends as well as 16 inspiring recipe ideas that incorporated various American agricultural products donated by 9 MAP cooperator organizations (ABC, CWC, CMC, RAC, Sunkist, USMEF, USDEC, USARG, USHBC) and 2 suppliers (Global Craft & Dongsuh Companies). In addition, the sponsoring organizations had a tabletop showcase at the event and gained face-to-face contacts with the 180 industry attendees. Actually, advanced interest in the event resulted in the ATO having several more wait-listed, however the hotel’s own interest in the caliber of our invitees from the food service industry allowed it to accommodate us for those additional persons who showed, thus bringing our attendance to 188 attendees! The guidebook (PDF version) and UCC cooking videos of five recipes served at the event are available from ATO Seoul website. For more information about the Korean food service industry, please refer to the Korea HRI Food Service Sector Report 2014, also available from ATO Seoul website.