[News Today] KOREAN FOODS CAPTIVATE EUROPE

[LEAD]
We now head over to France. spicy Korean dishes, including tteokbokki and kimchi, are gaining popularity in Europe. At a recent food expo in France, 'spicy flavors' dominated the K-food trend. We have the details.

[REPORT]
Overseas buyers sample tteokbokki in a cup.

Some of them are being introduced to Korean food for the first time through tteokbokki.

Some 7,000 food businesses from around the globe gathered at SIAL Paris, one of the three biggest food expos in the world.

Cup tteokbokki, which had already been exported to large European distributors, is the trade show's hottest item.

Jo Jae-gon/ Tteokbokki Company CEO
Korean ramyeon has become popular with their spiciness. The spice of tteokbokki and kimchi are now growing hot in Europe as well.

The export of tteok-related products such as tteokbokki has been growing steadily for the past five years. Last year, in particular, saw an increase of over 50% from the previous year.

The spice craze in Europe is spreading to kimchi and Korean seasonings, such as gochujang and ssamjang.

Dutch Buyer/
They believe it is healthy it's a different taste. It has this spicy kick in it. I like it myself also. It's different and that's why it's interesting.

This trend is driven by the Europeans' interest in Korean food shown in increasingly popular Korean dramas.

Nam Sang-hee/ Korea Agro-Fisheries, Food Trade Corp.
Awareness of Korean food has grown so it's okay to use Korean words, like gochujang, ssamjang, gimbap and sul, in marketing.

Thanks to successful quarantine negotiations, heat-processed poultry products can be exported to Europe, starting this year.

Consequently, the Korean chicken soup samgyetang and frozen fried chicken are expected to be the new key export items.

Riding the K-food momentum, Korean conglomerates have attended the food expo for the first time to seek diversification of Korean foods in the European market.