Ministry partners with GS Retail to serve Jangheung eel at GS Tower lunch event, tapping institutional food service as a new distribution channel

[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is moving to boost domestic seafood consumption by tapping corporate cafeterias as a new sales channel, extending its reach beyond hypermarkets into the institutional food service market.

The ministry announced Sunday that it will co-host a special lunch event at the GS Tower cafeteria in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on Monday, featuring domestically farmed freshwater eel from Jangheung in South Jeolla Province. GS Retail, the Korea Fisheries Infrastructure Public Agency and the Freshwater Eel Promotion Organization are co-organizing the event.

The event is part of the ministry's private-sector partnership program to raise fishermen's incomes. The ministry has previously worked with GS Retail to sell domestic freshwater eel at GS The Fresh stores as part of a broader effort to expand the consumer market.

This time, the focus is on identifying new buyers by linking into corporate institutional food service supply chains.

Eel rice bowls and grilled eel on a hot plate — both made with freshwater eel raised in Jangheung, South Jeolla Province — will be served as lunch options at the GS Tower cafeteria. The event is designed to give employees of GS Group affiliates and tenant companies direct exposure to domestically sourced seafood.

Senior officials attending include Park Seung-jun, the ministry's director general for fishery village and aquaculture policy; Kwak Yong-gu, head of GS Retail's supermarket business unit; Hong Jong-wook, president of the Korea Fisheries Infrastructure Public Agency; and Shin Young-rae, chairman of the Freshwater Eel Promotion Organization. They are expected to discuss ways to expand seafood consumption and broaden private-sector cooperation.

The ministry plans to use the event as a springboard to develop more cafeteria menus featuring domestic seafood and to build a stable supply chain centered on corporate and institutional food service operations.

"This is a win-win case — raising awareness of our seafood among corporate workers while opening new sales channels for fishermen," Park said. "We will expand cooperation with private companies to broaden the consumer base for domestically produced seafood."


adastra@heraldcorp.com