SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s deficit in kimchi trade reached US$47.28 million last year, up 11 percent from the year before, as cheap products from China flooded in, customs office statistics showed Wednesday. Last year’s deficit is the largest since the Korea Customs Service began to track data in 2000. Data showed [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire)– South Korea imported US$25 billion worth of food last year, with the biggest shipment in monetary terms coming from the United States, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Tuesday. The total is a 7 percent increase from the year before and breaks down to 18.29 million [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Hite Jinro Co., South Korea’s leading liquor manufacturer, said Tuesday it has established a new branch in Vietnam, as it attempts to tap deeper into the large Southeast Asian market. The launch of the new branch in Ho Chi Minh City came two years after the company set up [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The annual operating profit of Starbucks Coffee Korea Co., the local unit of the U.S. giant, surpassed the 100 billion-won (US$94 million) mark for the first time last year, driven by solid demand from young consumers, industry sources said Tuesday. The operating profit of the coffee chain, which is [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Caffe Bene, a local coffee franchise, filed for a court-led restructuring scheme on Friday after suffering from a protracted slump and mounting losses, the company said. Launched in 2008, Caffe Bene expanded to become one of the country’s largest coffee franchises, opening more than 1,000 stores in five years, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of agricultural corporations has nearly quadrupled over the past decade, government data showed Friday, as South Korean farmers have been struggling to cope with an influx of agricultural products from overseas. The figure was 19,413 as of the end of 2016, up from 5,307 in 2006, according [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – With demand for home meal replacements on the rise, meal kits are gaining popularity in South Korea. Unlike ready-made meals that can be eaten after simply being warmed up in a microwave, meal kits consist of prepared ingredients and sauces that consumers must cook on their own. According to [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Labor and management at Paris Baguette, South Korea’s largest bakery franchise, on Thursday reached an agreement to set up an affiliate to hire bakers, ending a months-long dispute over employment. In September, the government said SPC Group, the franchise’s operator, violated the country’s labor laws in connection with the hiring conditions of more than 5,300 bakers [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Golden Blue Co. said Thursday its signature brand of the same name ranked No. 1 in the nation’s whisky market last year amid growing popularity of low alcohol whisky among young consumers. A total of 374,609 boxes of Golden Blue, a homegrown whisky, were sold in 2017, accounting for [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – With a new consumer tendency that prioritizes satisfaction over cost-effectiveness sweeping across South Korea, an increasing number of luxury hotels are introducing strawberry buffets to target trendy consumers. ‘Strawberry desert buffets’ are almost becoming an annual event at luxury hotels in South Korea, as a growing number of consumers now [...]