The world’s largest producer of kimchi, Daesang Corporation, has chosen Poland as the location for its first factory in Europe producing the famous fermented vegetable dish. The site, to be run in partnership with a Polish firm specialising in fermented food, will also be Poland’s first kimchi plant.
Daesang will invest almost $11 million to develop the facility, which will be located in the city of Kraków and will produce up to 3,000 tons of kimchi annually under the Jongga brand once it opens in 2024, reports the Yonhap News Agency and Polish news outlet Puls Biznesu.
Output from the facility will be sold in supermarkets around Europe. While Daesang already has ten overseas production facilities – including kimchi plants in China and the United States – the Kraków factory will be its first in Europe, reports Business Korea.
“The Polish joint venture is yet another adventure for our attempts to globalise kimchi,” said Lim Jung-bae, CEO of Daesang, quoted by The Korea Herald. “We will do our best to promote the excellence and legitimacy of kimchi in Europe, following our efforts in the US.”
Finally, a store-bought kimchi that Rebecca and I can agree on. It's the Jongga brand from Costco. She prefers her kimchi more fermented than me. I prefer mine a little more "fresh." pic.twitter.com/TYKg2iqdeX
— Daniel Burapavong 🎮 (@TD2timeMVP) October 13, 2021
The factory is being developed as a joint venture with Charsznickie Pola Natury, a Polish firm that specialises in producing fermented cabbage, a traditionally popular product in Poland (which is the EU’s biggest producer of cabbage).
“Today is a big day! We have signed an agreement with the Seoul headquarters of Daesang Corporation concerning construction of the first kimchi factory in Poland,” wrote the firm on Facebook. The company already produces a line of kombucha, the fermented tea drink that originated in Asia.
Daesang will have a 76% stake in the joint venture, with Charsznickie Pola Natury holding the remaining 24%.
Poland has strengthened its business ties with South Korea this year. This month, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power was announced as the partner to develop one of Poland’s first nuclear power plants.
In July, the Polish government signed agreements to purchase billions of dollars worth of military hardware from South Korea in what is the Asian state’s largest-ever arms export deal.
The same month, SK Nexilis, a South Korean manufacturer of copper foil used in electric-car batteries, inaugurated the construction of a 3 billion zloty (€627 million) factory in the southeastern Polish city of Stalowa Wola.
Main image credit: Jin Li/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
