SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s seafood imports rose 10.5 percent in 2017 from a year earlier on growing appetite for foreign shrimp and salmon, the maritime ministry said Wednesday. South Korea imported US$5.14 billion worth of seafood last year, with the total volume hitting 1.48 million tons, according to the Ministry of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Koreans’ household spending on food rose for the first nine months of last year, a sign of weak recovery in private consumption, data showed Tuesday. Households spent a total of 573.6 trillion won (US$537.3 billion) during the January-September period, up 3.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. At the same time, household spending on food items rose 4.7 percent on-year to 78.9 trillion won. Based on the data, the [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported beer at South Korean convenience stores have risen sharply, store operators Sunday, as more consumers opt for variety and a growing number of people drink at home. BGF Retail Co., the operator of CU, South Korea’s largest convenience store chain, said sales of foreign beer brands [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – An increasing number of households are using strawberries and bananas for ancestral memorial rites during the Lunar New Year. According to data from the Rural Development Administration (RDA), over 8 in 10 South Koreans buy fruits for memorial ceremonies, with nearly 1 in 4 serving strawberries and bananas for [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Prosecutors said Tuesday they will not file charges against the local unit of McDonald’s, citing a lack of evidence undercooked burgers at its restaurants caused illness among some customers. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office released the result of its investigation into the fast food chain that was prompted [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — CJ Cheiljedang Corp., South Korea’s leading food manufacturer, said Thursday its net profit rose 16.8 percent in 2017 from a year earlier on the back of brisk performance of its processed foods and overseas businesses. Net income came to 412.8 billion won (US$379.3 million) on a consolidated basis last [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean food companies have been given the green light to resume sales of traditional chicken soup in China, as all related quarantine issue has been resolved, Seoul’s agriculture ministry said Thursday. Samgyetang is a traditional chicken soup made with a whole young chicken stuffed with ginseng, sticky rice [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Recent market analysis has revealed that women in their 20s and 30s comprise nearly half the consumer base for Korean traditional alcoholic beverages. From July to December (2017), women between the ages of 20 and 39 were responsible for 49.7 percent of online traditional liquor sales (9.7 percent by [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – The cost of eating out in South Korea rose to the highest level in nearly two years in January as a hike in ingredients and labor expenses drove up meal prices, data showed Saturday. The cost of meals sold at local restaurants and cafeterias increased 2.8 percent in January compared with a year earlier, the highest since February 2016, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. Prices of cafeteria and boxed [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — A new café where robots serve drinks has opened in Seoul. South Korean Coffeehouse chain Dal.komm Coffee held a launch event for the new robot café ‘b;eat’ on Tuesday at Some Sevit Floating Island in Seocho District, Seoul, celebrating the first robot café which opened at Incheon Airport’s new Terminal [...]