Korea’s E-mart Sells Indonesian Coffee

On February 12, 2014, at E–mart Supermarket branch Seongsu, Seoul, has held the launching ceremony of the commencement of sales of coffee from Indonesia and Kenya. The event was attended by the Ambassador of Indonesia, John A. Prasetio, Kenyan Ambassador to Korea, Chief of UNICEF Korea , and all related businesses, as well as about 10 Korean media. This is the first time that an e – mart Sold of coffee from Mandailing with direct import system. at that time e-mart imported 2 containers of coffee or equal to 38 tonnes from Indonesia and will be increased to 5-6 containers every year.

Import from Indonesia was still a raw coffee beans and the production process was still done in Korea. However, Indonesia's coffee sales by e - mart is already a distinguished achievement and can be introduced Indonesian coffee in the Korean society more broadly.

E-mart, which is one of the largest retail outlets in Korea under Shinsegae Corp with about 150 branches spread across the country, also formed a partnership with UNICEF associated with coffee sales from Indonesia and Kenya, where 1 % of the proceeds will be donated to UNICEF to support activities around the world. Aside from Indonesia and Kenya, the e - mart has sold coffee from some countries such as Brazil, Ethiopia etc.

At this time the Korean import coffee from several countries in the world with a value of U.S. $ 2 billion a year, where Indonesia only accounts for about U.S. $ 6.7 million. This is an opportunity that could be developed for Indonesian coffee. The Coffee culture has been growing rapidly in ginseng country’s as one of the social media, which is characterized by the proliferation of coffee shop across the country, both by local and international brands. This recent trend of coffee Korea began to experience a shift from instant coffee to roasted coffee flavor that is considered more and more healthy.

Source: Indonesian Embassy in South Korea