South Korea: Food Service - Hotel Restaurant Institutional
The Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional (HRI) foodservice sector in South Korea continues to grow as on-going socio-economic changes promote increased consumer spending on dining outside of the home. Cash-register sales for the sector totaled W83.8 trillion won ($79.6 billion) in 2014, up 5.4 percent from the previous year. The sector also continues to restructure as large-scale restaurant companies as well as broad-line foodservice distributors expand at the expense of small-scale, independent businesses. As a result, the sector generates additional demand for products of new taste, added value, stable supply, consistent quality and specifications catered to the industry. These changes, coupled with implementation of the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement, should offer greater export opportunities for a wide variety of American products in the coming year.
