[Provided by North Gyeongsang Province]
[Provided by North Gyeongsang Province]

North Gyeongsang Province is joining forces with four regional hub institutions to strengthen the local food industry, with plans to build a shared food factory in Andong that will support companies from product development through production and commercialization.

The province signed an MOU Tuesday with six organizations — Andong city, the Gyeongbuk Institute for Bio Industry, the Korea Food Research Institute's North Gyeongsang branch, Daegu University and the East Sea Rim Industrial Research Institute — at the Stanford Hotel in Andong to establish a food convergence cluster.

The agreement aims to link food industry infrastructure and expertise across the province's northern, western, southern and eastern regions to lay the groundwork for sustained growth in the local food sector.

Under the MOU, the participating institutions agreed to collaborate on joint research and technology development, provide technical and infrastructure support for the cluster, jointly pursue programs to strengthen corporate competitiveness, and share their respective networks.

The centerpiece of the initiative is a 1,885-square-meter shared food factory to be built within the Gyeongbuk Institute for Bio Industry in Pungsan-eup, Andong. The province plans to invest a total of 5.6 billion won ($4.18 million) between 2027 and 2028 to complete the facility.

The shared factory will specialize in liquid food products, including freshly pressed carbonated beverages, extracts and concentrates.

By allowing food companies to share production facilities, the factory is designed to reduce the burden of upfront capital investment and support small-batch production between prototype development and full market launch.

North Gyeongsang Province was selected in April as a pilot project site under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' food convergence cluster program. The province will now move forward in earnest by linking the project with the expertise and business support infrastructure of the Korea Food Industry Cluster Promotion Institute.

"This agreement will serve as an opportunity to consolidate food industry capabilities across each region and strengthen the foundation for growth in the local food sector," said Koo Kwang-mo, director of the province's Food Hallyu Industry Bureau. "We will push ahead without delay on building the food convergence cluster and shared factory, and raise the competitiveness of local food companies through industry-academia-research-government cooperation."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com