Food business to be transformed with huge investment

A robot serving coffee demonstrated in Daejeon in October last year [YONHAP]

Almost a trillion won will be committed to fortifying Korea's restaurant businesses as regulations are lifted to support food and beverage developments.

Robots are part of the plan.

Foreigners with Korean ancestors will get visas easier in order to help restaurants with staffing.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Wednesday said the goal is to help establish at least 10 unicorn food-tech startups, five restaurant companies with annual revenue of over 1 trillion won and 5,000 locations abroad.

Total investment is set at 930 billion won ($709 million).

The funds will be used in funding research and development by food tech companies and the commercialization of start-up products and services in food businesses.

This includes creating districts in different regions where smart-food technologies, including robots cooking and serving and kiosks for ordering, will be utilized.

In boosting food tech, the Agriculture and Food Ministry plans to work with the Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry to update the Intelligent Robots Development and Distribution Promotion Act and the Road Traffic Act.

The regulation change will allow delivery robots to serve customers.

H-2 visa rules will be updated so that the holders of the visa will be able to work in more types or restaurants, including those that make ramyeon, pizza and sandwiches.

The H-2 visa is an employment visa that is given to ethic Koreans including those from China and Commonwealth of Independent States. The visa was created in 2007 to help ethnic Koreans from other countries find work in Korea.

For global expansion, the government will operate a consulting service.

The ministry will help in promoting Korean foods by utilizing the rising popularity of Korean entertainment, including K-pop, K-movies and TV dramas.

This includes working with foreign influencers, travel agencies and airlines in raising the recognition of K-food globally.

A service classification system will be tested starting 2024 that will help standardize restaurant services and quality evaluation. The government expect this system to raise the restaurant services not only for foreigners but also for locals.

An online agriculture exchange system will be set up next year. It will allow restaurant owners and food companies to directly trade goods and services with farms.

The government hopes that once the system is up and running it will encourage companies and restaurants to increase the use of local produce and livestock.

While the number of restaurants has been growing, 85 percent of the restaurants are small shops owned by individuals. Only 20.1 percent are in business after five years.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]