The Korea Food Industry Association is setting up a Food Company Support Center to help small and mid-sized food companies struggling with staff shortages and a lack of information.
Park Jin-sun, chairman of the association, said at a press briefing on the 29th in Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, marking his first year in the post, that the group had stepped up communication with the government, the National Assembly and related agencies to relay industry concerns into policy. "Over the past year, we listened closely to the difficulties and grievances that food companies face on the ground and worked to reflect them in policy and regulation," he said. "To support those voices in a more tangible way, we are newly launching the Food Company Support Center."
The center was created to address the difficulties of small and mid-sized food companies that lack specialists and relevant information, even as their problems grow more varied and complex amid changes in the business environment and in rules and regulations. For member companies and their partners, the center will provide expert consulting across six areas: food safety; food manufacturing, production and technological innovation; use of support programs; general management covering legal, tax and labor affairs; exports; and environmental, social and governance management. When a company requests a consultation, the center will assign an expert, deliver the findings quickly and handle follow-up management. Where urgent action is needed, such as in cases involving administrative sanctions, it will also make on-site visits.
"The difficulties food companies face these days often do not come down to a single issue," Park said. "We are building a system that provides one-on-one, tailored expert consulting suited to each company's problems and, when necessary, visits company sites directly to diagnose problems and help resolve them."
Park also voiced regret over several issues surrounding the food industry, including product price increases and government penalties for collusion. On price increases, he said the industry is not treated as manufacturing even though it is. "The food industry is a manufacturing business that requires capital investment and carries heavy upfront costs, yet the government and society tend not to see it as manufacturing," he said. "Beyond raw materials, capital investment and research and development account for a large share of total costs. Because there is little recognition that this is manufacturing, when raw material prices rise and then fall again, people say we should lower product prices again."
On the recent push for tough penalties on collusion, including the "legislative plan to root out repeated collusion" unveiled by the government and the Democratic Party of Korea a day earlier, Park said the scope of what counts as collusion has widened sharply. "When the Fair Trade Act was revised in 2022, the range defined as collusion expanded enormously. It covers not only agreements among top executives but also cases where sales staff with no influence over pricing simply talk about prices," he said. "Collusion is something that must not be done, and it is illegal, but I think we need to give some thought to how far the definition of collusion should reach."
