'United Tastes of America Asia Chef Challenge 2016 Korea Prelim ', Ahn Jong Sung - Song Kyung Sup Chef Team Wins the Korean Champion Prize

The Korea preliminary competition of the '2016 United Tastes of America Asia Chef Challenge 2016', a global culinary event hosted by the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office and the U.S. Meat Export Federation, took place on February 2 in Chungjungwon Cooking Academy Seoul. The event was also sponsored and supported by California Walnut Council, U.S. Potato Board, U.S. Rice Federation, U.S. Dairy Export Council, and Sunkist. Among ten teams admitted to the competition, the team of chef Ahn Jong Sung and Song Kyung Sup representing A Chef Culinary Academy Seoul won the Korean Champion prize. The Korean champion team will attend the grand finale competition in Tokyo on March 23. The event successfully accomplished its goal to highlight the culinary skills of highly talented chefs in Korea while promoting the value and quality of a wide variety of American products in the Korean HRI foodservice sector. The event also generated strong publicity for the sponsor USDA cooperators and ATO Seoul through its facebook account since launching. In addition, the competition also produced many press articles in both daily newspapers and Internet news media.

Northwest West Wine & U.S. Food Show, January 25, The Plaza Hotel Seoul

A delegation of 11 wineries under the Northwest Wine Coalition (NWC, covering State of Washington and Oregon) visited Seoul for trade events on January 15. The event started with a special seminar by Master Sommelier Yoon Ha on the subject of Northwest wine regions and food-wine pairing ideas, which was followed by two separate sessions of trade tasting, one for import buyers and the other for general wine & restaurant trade. The event was finalized by a VIP dinner reception targeting key buyers, critics and journalists. Mark Lippert, the U.S. Ambassador to Korea attended the opening ceremony of the trade tasting and delivered welcome remarks. Three USDA cooperators (USMEF, CMC, USPB) co-sponsored the event and provided food stations where the attendees were able to expand their food & wine parting knowledge and experience. The wine market in Korea offers new export opportunity for American suppliers as the consumers generate increased demand for products of better value and wider diversity. Korea's wine imports from the United States totaled $23 million in 2015, up 8.8 percent from the previous year. Please refer to Korea Wine Market Report 2015 published by ATO Seoul for more information about the Korean wine market.

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.