Vietnamese enterprise strives to 'open its own path' in South Korea

Novel tastes

The International Food Exhibition Seoul Food 2025 is one of Asia's leading exhibitions in the food industry, which has been organized annually since 1983 by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

Now in its 43^rd edition, this year's event has the largest scale ever, gathering 1,640 companies from 45 countries and territories. Among them, China, Thailand, Spain, Australia, and Vietnam are the top countries with the most participating enterprises.

On the first day, the diverse flavors of food and beverages from 45 countries aroused all seven major exhibition halls. As an exhibition specializing in food and beverages, Seoul Food emphasizes B2B (Business-to-Business) promotion. As a result, regardless of their size, all booths are capable of fulfilling large-volume orders. Meanwhile, buyers stop by each booth for just a taste, yet may end up signing contracts for full container loads, typically starting from around 25 metric tons or more.

This year, Vietnam's booth area (Food of Vietnam) gathered a strong presence of nearly 50 exhibitors, showcasing their strengths in spices; fruits and vegetables (canned, frozen, and fruit juices); nuts; rice and rice-based products; confectionery; and coffee. Notably, several first-time participants made a breakthrough with the launch of impressive new product lines.

The booth of TH Food Chain Joint Stock Company (a member of TH Group) featured an eye-catching display of two strategic product lines aimed at the South Korean market. These products are TH true TEA (ready-to-drink tea) and TH true YOGURT (sterilized drinking yogurt).

Ready-to-drink tea and drinking yogurt are already widely available in South Korean supermarkets and convenience store chains, such as 7-Eleven, CU, GS25, and Lotte. However, TH Group remains confident in introducing its products to the South Korean market, as they align with current consumer trends, along with real, natural ingredients and novel tastes.

According to Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy, International Sales Director at TH Group, young South Korean consumers favor convenient and healthy beverages, including tea. “TH true TEA is made from green tea, black tea, and oolong tea, blended with distinct Vietnamese flavors such as lemon, lychee, peach, and, most recently, calamansi and guava. With this freshness, we aim to adopt our own approach to bring our products closer to consumers,” she said.

One of TH products' key strengths lies in raw materials. The tea leaves are carefully selected from Moc Chau Plateau (Son La), a famous tea-growing region in Vietnam situated at over 1,000 meters above sea level. The teas are not mixed with leaves from other areas, ensuring uniform quality. While green tea retains a fresh, mildly acrid, authentic flavor, black tea delivers a strong taste and a rich, characteristic fragrance derived from a full oxidation process during fermentation.

As a newcomer to the South Korean market, TH's products must undergo various quality assessments and labeling checks. Ms. Thanh Thuy emphasized, “TH Group is a leading Vietnamese enterprise in dairy and beverage processing. With our foundation in high-tech application and one of the region’s most modern production facilities, we are confident in our products. However, some adjustments will be necessary to meet the market's specific standards.”

Currently, TH Group has successfully exported its sterilized drinking yogurt, TH true YOGURT, to the South Korean market and is now working to bring its ready-to-drink tea and fresh milk products under the TH true MILK brand to consumers in this market.

New opportunity, new door

According to the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, among nearly 50 Vietnamese enterprises participating in Seoul Food 2025, TH Group represented the largest Vietnamese delegation to ever attend the event.

Vietnamese booths displayed a wide range of traditional products. Notably, for the first time, new items such as pasteurized fresh milk, sterilized drinking yogurt, and ready-to-drink tea were introduced.

At the exhibition, a representative of TH Group shared that, with products tailored to Vietnamese tastes, the company plans to initially target the Vietnamese community in South Korea through e-commerce platforms and distribution channels within the expatriate network. This strategy will serve as a foundation to gradually expand to other sales channels. Currently, there are over 500,000 Vietnamese people in South Korea, including approximately 305,936 naturalized South Korean citizens. This is also a large market that many Vietnamese businesses have yet to tap into effectively.

Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea, Mr. Vu Ho, who visited the TH booth, expressed strong confidence in Vietnam’s leading dairy and beverage brand. He emphasized that TH holds a competitive advantage in the South Korean market and will surely meet the stringent quality standards and import-export procedures in this country.

Visiting Vietnam's booth area, Mr. Kang Kyung-sung, Chairman of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), highly appreciated the products showcased by Vietnamese enterprises at this year’s exhibition. According to Mr. Kang Kyung-sung, this event is an opportunity for Vietnamese agricultural and food enterprises to meet, exchange, and seek potential partners to promote business and expand export markets in the current context.

Trade activities between Vietnam and South Korea are currently supported by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA). By taking full advantage of these frameworks, Vietnamese food and beverage enterprises will have many opportunities to achieve breakthroughs.

According to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam’s export turnover to South Korea reached USD 2.2 billion in April 2025. For the first four months of 2025, total exports exceeded USD 8.9 billion, marking an increase of 8.9% compared to the same period last year. However, food products have yet to become a strong export sector for Vietnam in the South Korean market. In fact, the product group with the highest export turnover in the first four months of 2025 was computers, electronic products, and components, valued at USD 2.6 billion, up 42.2%.