Businesses strive to “open their own path” in Korea

On June 10, the Seoul Food 2025 International Food Exhibition opened at the Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) in Goyang, northwest of Seoul (South Korea). This year, Vietnam made its mark with a number of new food and beverage products, paving the way for product lines that are "bringing bells to strike foreign lands" for the first time.

New tastes

Seoul Food 2025 is one of Asia's leading food industry exhibitions hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) annually since 1983.

In its 43rd edition, this year’s exhibition is the largest in scale with 1,640 participating companies from 45 countries and territories; in which the countries with the most participating businesses are China, Thailand, Spain, Australia and Vietnam.

On the very first day, the flavors of food and beverages from 45 countries stirred up all 7 major exhibition areas of the exhibition. As a specialized exhibition on food and beverages, Seoul Food focuses on promoting B2B (Business to Business) so the booths - whether big or small - all have the ability to supply a large amount, and customers - looking at the empty-handed, light, come to each booth to try a piece but can sign a contract to buy the whole shipment (about 25 tons) or more.

TH Group representative received young distributors with effective sales channels.

This year’s Vietnam Pavilion (Food of Vietnam) has a strong force of nearly 50 exhibiting businesses with strengths in spices; vegetables, tubers, fruits (canned, frozen, fruit juice), nuts, spices, rice, rice products, confectionery, coffee. Along with that, some businesses participating for the first time have made a breakthrough introducing impressive new product lines.

The booth of TH Food Chain Joint Stock Company (part of TH Group) eye-catchingly displayed two strategic product lines to approach the Korean market: TH true TEA natural tea (instant tea) and TH true YOGURT sterilized yogurt drink.

In supermarkets and convenience stores in Korea such as 7 Eleven; CU, GS25 or Lotte system... there is no shortage of ready-to-drink tea products; drinking yogurt; however, TH Group confidently introduces these product lines to the Korean market because they follow the consumer trend, along with real, natural ingredients and new flavors.

Within the framework of the Exhibition, there are seminars sharing about trends in using healthy foods and drinks.

According to Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy, Director of International Business of TH Group, young Koreans prefer convenient and healthy drinks - including tea. “TH true TEA uses green tea, black tea and oolong tea ingredients, combined with unique Vietnamese flavors such as lemon, lychee, peach and most recently kumquat and guava. With this novelty, we will have our own approach to bring the product closer to consumers.”

One of the strengths of TH products is the raw materials. Tea leaves are selected from famous tea regions of Vietnam, such as tea grown in Moc Chau plateau (Son La) at an altitude of over 1,000 m and not mixed with tea from other regions, so the quality is consistent. If green tea carries the original, fresh, slightly astringent tea flavor, black tea has a strong tea flavor, a characteristic rich aroma thanks to the fermentation process (fully oxidized). Natural ingredients combined with natural, pure and unique flavors have "retained" many demanding customers to enjoy TH true TEA tea at this prestigious culinary exhibition.

As a new product entering the Korean market, TH must pass many stages of product quality testing, labeling, etc. Ms. Thanh Thuy emphasized: “TH Group is a leading enterprise in the field of milk and beverage processing in Vietnam, with a high-tech application platform and the most modern factory system in the region, so we are confident in the product. However, certain adjustments will be needed to suit specific criteria.”

Currently, TH Group has successfully exported TH true YOGURT sterilized yogurt to the Korean market and is promoting the export of ready-to-drink tea and TH true MILK fresh milk products.

Customers at the Exhibition try TH true TEA tea products.

New opportunity, new door

According to the Trade Promotion Agency ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ) - the organizer of the delegation of nearly 50 enterprises attending the Seoul Food 2025 Exhibition, this is the largest Vietnamese business delegation attending Seoul Food ever.

The Vietnamese pavilions showcased many traditional products. And, for the first time, new products such as sterilized fresh milk, sterilized drinking yoghurt and ready-to-drink tea.

At the Exhibition, a representative of TH Group also shared that with pure Vietnamese taste, the company plans to approach the Vietnamese community in Korea first through a number of sales channels on e-commerce platforms and distribution channels of the Vietnamese community. From there, continue to approach other sales channels. Currently, Korea has more than 500,000 Vietnamese people, of which 305,936 are Korean citizens, which is also a large market that many Vietnamese businesses have not exploited effectively.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Vietnam to Korea - Mr. Vu Ho visited TH booth and expressed his belief that Vietnam's leading brand of milk products, dairy products and beverages like TH will have many advantages when entering the Korean market and will certainly overcome the "gatekeepers" of quality standards and import-export procedures in Korea.

Mr. Kang Kyung-sung - Chairman of KOTRA and Korean representative visited Vietnam booth area.

Visiting the Vietnamese booth, Mr. Kang Kyung-sung - Chairman of KOTRA highly appreciated the products of Vietnamese enterprises participating in this year's Exhibition. Mr. Kang Kyung-sung said that this is an opportunity for Vietnamese agricultural and food enterprises to meet, exchange, and seek potential partners to promote business and expand export markets in the current context.

Import and export trade activities between Vietnam and Korea currently have the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA). Taking advantage of these opportunities, Vietnamese food and beverage enterprises will have many opportunities to make breakthroughs.

An Lam

According to statistics from the General Department of Customs, Vietnam's export turnover to the Korean market in April 2025 reached 2.2 billion USD; in the first 4 months of 2025, it reached more than 8.9 billion USD, an increase of 8.9% over the same period last year. However, food products are not yet Vietnam's export strength to Korea. In fact, the item with the largest export turnover in the first 4 months of 2025 is the group of computers, products and components worth 2.6 billion USD, an increase of 42.2%.

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/doanh-nghiep-no-luc-mo-loi-di-rieng-o-han-quoc-251931.htm