'Yukpo' ㅡ delicacy made by toil, patience
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Traditional Korean jerky will go on sale in Hong Kong
By Park Si-soo
YEONGDONG, North Chungcheong Province — Humble buildings stand among low mountain peaks and rice paddies in this rural county, where a food factory busily produces Korea’s traditional jerky which is soon to be sold on markets overseas.
Hundreds of jerky boxes were piled up like a wall in the factory’s warehouse. Trucks were being busily loaded, suggesting that the nutritional snack, called “yukpo,” is in high demand.
What makes the Korean recipe unique is the use of soy sauce to marinate the meat before drying. The United States, the biggest jerky market in the world, normally uses salt, while Southeast Asian nations barbecue meat in order to preserve the final product for a long time.
A worker is trimming a loaf of raw meat to remove fat and tendons
Korea’s indigenous method is believed to have been created hundreds of years ago to remove the odor of raw meat and make the end product more tender, tasty and able to be kept for up to one year.
The factory owned by the Sempio Foods Company, a major provider of fermented traditional Korean sauces, is developing a new method of marinating using soybean paste. The company claims it will significantly improve the products’ quality.
“Yukpo is a nutritiously superb snack that is good for everyone from kids to students and senior citizens,” said Lee Seang-jea, the factory’s managing director.
Trimmed meats are being marinated in a soy sauce-filled plastic packet in a refrigerator
“Yukpo is already popular among Japanese tourists. They buy a lot. We also see a big potential in major jerky-consuming nations such as the U.S. and Southeast Asian countries.”
Yukpo exports are currently banned since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease here in 2011. The outbreak cost the country the animal disease-free status needed to export meat, dairy and livestock. The World Organization of Animal Health is expected to lift the ban in 2016, he said.
“Hong Kong is the only country we can export yukpo at the moment,” Lee said. “We recently completed market studies. We will soon map out concrete sales and marketing plans to make the first yukpo exports a success. I think we’ve just taken the first step to yukpo’s globalization.”
Workers hang marinated meats on a steel hanger before drying
Growing demand
The recipe is traditional, but the factory’s manufacturing system is state-of-the-art.
Jerky-making has many tricky processes — the initial meat trimming (to remove fat or tendons), cutting it into strips and screening for defective products — that should be done by human hands. Besides those, the factory has automated its production processes, including the two most important stages of marinating and drying.
With the half-automated system, the plant produced 400 tons of yukpo last year, posting 22 billion won in sales. The figure marks a 22-percent rise from 18 billion won in 2012. Its target for this year is 30 billion won.
The plant is now building a new production line to increase its annual production capacity to 800 tons.
Workers check final products to screen for defective ones
“The demand for yukpo is on the rise,” Lee said. “Yukpo has long been regarded as a treat that goes with an alcoholic drink. But things have changed. Now a growing number of people perceive it as a high nutrition, protein-rich snack suitable for all people.”
Several domestic food giants, including Dongwon F&B, CJ Cheiljedang and Daesang, have jumped into the yukpo business in recent years, reflecting its growing market potential. Their foray poses an increasing challenge to Sempio, Kojoobu B&F and smaller makers that have shared the market for many years, he said.
The domestic yukpo market is estimated at 100 billion won. Kojoobu takes the biggest share of 25 percent and Sempio follows with 20 percent.
'Sanitation is top priority'
In the factory, everyone has to wear sanitized clothes, hair caps, masks and rubber boots, and then pass through air-filtering tunnels to reach the manufacturing line. The process took approximately 20 minutes.
There was an extra cleansing section on the way toward the final packing area from the manufacturing lines. The manufacturing building does not even have a restroom, a structural measure to maintain perfect cleanness.
These features were recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea and renowned global food safety inspector the SQF Institute.
“Nearly 70 workers make yukpo after completing these time-consuming cleansing programs. There are no exceptions,” said Kim Kwang-ho, senior manager of a production team. Some years ago, Sempio chairman visited the plant to inspect the manufacturing lines, but gave up because it was “too cumbersome,” he recalled with a smile.
“Sanitation is our top priority,” Lee said. “It’s everything in the food business. Although it may cause huge inconvenience to workers or visitors, we will continue to hold up this principle. If we had allowed for compromise, we wouldn’t have reached today’s status.” He said the company receives only one or two complaints from customers a year.
The managing director said jerky-making is a business that requires hard work and a large investment, but makes little money.
“Above all, the basic cost is so high,” he said. “Nevertheless, we cannot increase consumer prices freely because there is a marginal level of prices that customers can afford. If the price goes up above the line, demand will drop rapidly. It’s very tricky to find a point that meets expectations of both sides.”
Having worked for the company for more than three decades, he jokingly said, “If I wanted big money, I wouldn’t be in the jerky business.”