KIMCHI TARGETING AMERICANS IN HIGH DEMAND

[Anchor Lead]

What's the very first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Korean food? Kimchi has established itself as the most representative K-food over the past years, and it's popularity is soaring day by day in the U.S. market. Efforts are underway in the country to win over the hearts of locals, but cheap Chinese Kimchi is growing its presence as well.

[Pkg]

A kimchi advertisement in the heart of Times Square in New York. Salads made with kimchi are all the rage at local restaurants. Kimchi's popularity as a healthy dish has surged since the pandemic.

[Soundbite] (New York resident)

Exports of Korean kimchi to the U.S. have more than tripled in the past three years, and are predicted to record an all-time high this year. As the kimchi market keeps growing, a kimchi factory was built in LA this year to supply the dish to local consumers.

[Soundbite] Chung Chan-ki(Daesang Corporation) : "Kimchi was mostly consumed in the U.S. by ethnic Koreans and Asians. But nowadays its sales are growing rapidly because more locals buy it."

Kimchi products targeting the palates of local consumers are also under development. One of them is the so-called vegan kimchi, which does not contain salted fish shunned by American consumers and targets vegetarians. Slowing down fermentation used to be one of the biggest challenges in promoting kimchi overseas. But Korean manufacturers have developed a technology that can minimize fermentation and keep kimchi fresh for a long time.

[Soundbite] Choi Seung-hye(CJ CheilJedang) : "The biggest difference is that the quality of kimchi stays the same at room temperature for as long as one year from the day it was made to keep its taste at that fermentation stage that consumers prefer the most."

However, cheap Chinese kimchi still dominates in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Korean government and kimchi manufacturers are trying hard to publicize the unrivaled taste of Korean kimchi and its authenticity. As part of those efforts, Kimchi Day was designated recently in the U.S.