Daesang Vietnam builds its second plant (right) in Hải Dương (Courtesy of Daesang)
Daesang Corp., South Korea’s leading food maker, said on Monday its two Vietnamese operations have completed their second plant, respectively, in the country to scale up the production of meal kits and kimchi, the traditional Korean spicy side dish, as well as dried seaweed.
The second plant in Hải Dương has expanded Daesang Vietnam’s annual capacity by 40%, including a new room temperature manufacturing line for pre-prepared meals with great growth potential.
It will also boost production of dried seaweed in Vietnam, its key overseas market. Daesang commands more than half of Vietnam’s seaweed market under its global food brand O’food
It built its first plant in Hải Dương in 2020.
With the addition of the second plant, Daesang Duc Viet has more than doubled production capacity in Hưng Yên, where it manufacturers processed food such as sausage at room temperatures.
At the new factory, it will produce meal kits for spring rolls and bánh bao, a ball-shaped bun containing pork or chicken meat and vegetables, in addition to processed meat and kimchi. Daesang’s kimchi is better known as its brand name Jongga Kimchi.
Daesang poured 30 billion won ($22 million) each into Daesang Vietnam in Hải Dương and Daesang Duc Viet in Hưng Yên to build the new plants.
Daesang Duc Viet builds its second plant (front) in Hưng Yên (Courtesy of Daesang)
Last year, Daesang raked in more than 200 billion won ($145 million) in sales of food products and condiments in Vietnam. That is nearly double its revenue back in 2017.
In the Southeast Asian country, kimchi seasoning used to make the Korean staple side dish with locally-produced vegetables and meal kits for street food such as tteokbokki and hot dogs are also gaining popularity.
Daesang will produce three types of room-temperature spaghetti sauce in the country.
For refrigerated bánh bao, a preferred breakfast by Vietnamese, Daesang will unveil three flavors, including that of Korean barbeque bulgogi. Bulgogi is made of thin, marinated slices of beef.
It will introduce frozen spring rolls under the O’food brand with pizza flavor and other localized recipes.
In 1994, Daesang founded its first subsidiary in Vietnam and built a factory in Viet Tri, about 60 kilometers northwest of Hanoi, the following year, to produce its signature condiment Miwon.
In 2016, it acquired Duc Viet Food to expand into Vietnam’s processed meat market.
By Sul-Li Jun
sljun@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article
