– South Korea's small cooking machine and beauty product makers gained confidence in their product quality and discovered their ample potential at 2024 Korea Business Expo Vienna this week. CreChef, a little-known Korean food machine maker, clinched three supply contracts just two hours after opening its booth at the expo on its first day of Oct. 29.
The contracts include 15 ramen cooking machines it sold to a Rumanian retailer, who will install them in his supermarkets. Three shaved ice dessert machines will be shipped to a Servian owner of Korea food and dessert restaurants in his home country. The machines each go for 1 million to 2 million won ($725-$1,450).
“[European buyers] who became interested in Korean food after watching Korean dramas and shows visited our booth,” said Lee Hyung-man, chairman of CreChef. “Entering the European market was our homework. I was surprised by their interest [in Korean food], which was stronger than expected,” he added.
At the annual event marking its 28th anniversary, 377 Korean small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) opened booths. The two-day exhibition drew about 5,000 visitors. On Oct.
29 alone, they inked a total of 61.2 billion won in supply contracts. Cooking machines such as instant ramen cookers and their components took the lion’s share of 20.
9 billion won. Beauty and food products made up 17.6 billion won and 17.
3 billion won, respectively. “This is the first product fair in Europe that brought in more than 100.
