Philippines makes strategic bid for Korean food market

Center of International Trade and Expositions and Missions (CITEM) Executive Director Leah Pulido Ocampo, second from left, Philippine Trade and Investment Center Seoul Commercial Counselor Charmaine Mignon Yalong, third from left, and CITEM Department Manager for Consumer Business Rowena Mendoza, fourth from left, pose with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency executives. Courtesy of CITEM

The Philippines has launched its first official country pavilion at Seoul Food 2026, anchoring a 24-company corporate delegation at one of Asia’s largest food and beverage trade fairs to exploit a newly enacted free trade agreement with Korea.

The four-day exhibition, which opened Tuesday at the KINTEX convention center northwest of Seoul, marks Manila’s most aggressive institutional push into the Korean market since the Philippines-Korea Free Trade Agreement took effect in December 2024. The bilateral trade pact eliminates tariffs on 94.8 percent of Philippine exports to Korea, offering an immediate competitive advantage to Southeast Asian agricultural and food exporters looking to undercut regional rivals.

Manila’s trade apparatus has structured the exhibition into two distinct commercial corridors under the "FOODPhilippines" banner. The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, is managing 16 companies focused on processed goods, including integrated food conglomerates like Oleo-Fats and Phil-Union Frozen Foods. Concurrently, the Philippine Department of Agriculture is sponsoring eight midtier enterprises targeting niche confectioneries and high-value fresh crops.

The institutional push comes as Korea's structural reliance on imported food accelerates. Hampered by limited domestic arable land and a rapidly aging rural workforce, Korea imported $37.4 billion worth of agricultural goods last year.

While the Philippines exported over $3.5 billion in total goods to Korea in 2024, agricultural and food products accounted for a modest $300 million to $350 million of that total. Philippine trade officials are betting that the tariff exemptions will allow processed tropical goods — ranging from coconut oils and banana chips to value-added purple yam and calamansi concentrates — to capture greater shelf space in Korea's premium retail and convenience sectors.

The strategy also signals a broader industrial pivot by Manila away from low-margin raw commodity shipments toward higher-value, finished consumer goods.

"International trade exhibitions represent the precise touchpoints where diplomatic relations and commercial strategies intersect," CITEM Executive Director Leah Pulido Ocampo said.

The debut follows an increase in Korean purchasing activity at Manila's flagship domestic trade show, IFEX Philippines, earlier this year, where Korean buyers ranked among the top 10 international delegations. Commercial data and digital storefronts for the exhibiting firms have been consolidated on the country's trade portal, ifexconnect.com.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.