USA Fair at Lotte Shopping Main Store, June 14-20, 2013

On June 14, Lotte’s flagship department store in Myeong-dong held a weeklong promotion of a range of U.S. products and brands in Lotte’s flagship department store. The promotion began with U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Sung Kim and CEO of Lotte Shopping, SHIN Heon opening the ceremony with a ribbon cutting. Lotte’s store-wide promotion featured U.S. fashion brands, commercial goods, and food products including U.S. seasoned LA Galbi, California cherries, citrus, nuts, dried blueberries and chocolates. Lotte currently has 34 department stores, which are the highest end of its retail sales. Lotte Shopping Co. also includes grocery supermarkets (350), hypermarkets (103), convenience stores (4,740), outlet shopping malls, TV home shopping, and Internet shopping malls.

Washington State Wine Experience 2013

A group of three Korean wine importers attended Washington State Wine Experience (WSWE) 2013, June 3 – 7 under the sponsorship of the Washington State Wine Commission. WSWE is a biennial event that brings a large group of wine traders and professionals from the world to Washington state wine country for in-depth education programs as well as business development opportunities. The event allowed the Korean importers to understand the value, quality, and diversity of Washington state wine while developing contacts with a large number of export-ready suppliers in the industry for potential business partnerships. A follow-up survey administered right after the event indicated that the Korean attendees would generate $200,000 in new purchases of Washington state wine over the next 12 months. Korea’s wine imports during the first four months in 2013 totaled $57.4 million, up 29.5 percent from the same period the previous year. Korea’s wine imports from the U.S. during the period amounted to $7.1 million, up 50.1 percent from the previous year. For more information about the wine market in Korea, please refer to Korea Wine Market Report 2012 written by ATO Seoul.

Seoul Food & Hotel 2013, May 14-17, 2013

Ambassador Sung Kim cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony at Korea’s largest international food and agriculture show, Seoul Food & Hotel 2013. More than 45 American companies and trade associations representing a wide range of products met with their Korean counterparts on opening day of the four-day show. The Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) has zeroed-out or reduced duties on American food products and in 2012, the first year of the of the Agreement, U.S. exports of high-value, consumer oriented products to Korea reached a record $2.8 billion. For more information on trade opportunities under KORUS FTA please see KORUS FTA.