South Korean food giant CJ CheilJedang said Monday it sold its entire stake in Jixiangju Food, one of its biggest Chinese subsidiaries that sold Chinese food in China, in a bid to focus on its global strategy to primarily sell Korean food products, centering on its Bibigo brand. According to CJ CheilJedang, the company sold its 60 percent stake in Jixiangju Food for 300 billion won ($235 million) to multiple Chinese institutional investors and the second-largest stakeholder of Jixiangju Food, wh

Korean milk companies said Friday they are reviewing plans to increase the prices of their products, following the Korea Dairy Committee's recent decision to raise the price of raw milk by the largest rate in ten years. "We are going over plans to raise the price of our fresh milk products, as the price of raw milk outweighs all other factors that help determine the price of the end product, including pasteurization, labor and distribution costs and such," said an official from a

Incheon Airport said it has begun utilizing preregistered facial information to streamline the departure process for passengers from Friday. Dubbed the "facial recognition smart pass service," the newly launched service will allow passengers to quickly pass through the identification process at departure and boarding gates without having to show their passports and boarding passes to security personnel. The service is available at six departure gates and 16 boarding gates at Incheon Ai

By Lee Yoon-seo Korea Herald correspondent SINGAPORE -- A masked resident pores over a piece of uterine fibroid -- a tumor developed in the uterus -- and cautiously slices it with a scalpel. The thinly sectioned tissue specimen, after going through various processes including chemical treatment, flattening and staining, is then put on a small glass slide by a scientist. With whole slide imaging, the tissue on the glass slide is virtually copied into a highly magnified image, to be uploaded ont

By Lee Yoon-seo Korea Herald correspondent SINGAPORE -- Philips APAC, the multinational health care solution provider Philips' headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region, on Wednesday said it is committed to digitizing the APAC health care industry to enable better patient outcomes and drive greater work satisfaction, focusing on its state-of-art technologies as the health care sector grapples with escalating financial pressures and staff shortages. Via a media event at Philips APAC's

Passports are far more than just simple travel documents that verify a holder's personal information. In fact, the thin, palm-sized booklets also function as the barometers for a nation's status on the international stage -- in that some passports have the power to allow its holder to gain access to international destinations without extra entry requirements, such as visas, while some passports don't. In this regard, a recent report showed that South Korean passports are one of th

Furnishing a home is a strenuous venture, as performing a holistic analysis of measurements for a slew of necessities such as furniture, floor area and structure of a building, can be costly and tough to pull off for everyday consumers with little knowledge in architecture. Urbanbase, a startup specializing in providing three-dimensional spatial data and artificial intelligence-supported styling services for home refurbishment, is one of the first companies in South Korea that attempted to simpl

South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate Lotte Group on Tuesday held its biannual meeting of top executives to review business performances and seek ways for sustainable growth amid increasing market volatility and uncertainty. Some 80 executives, including Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Lotte Corp. CEO Lee dong-woo, attended the meeting, which it refers to as its "Value Creating Meeting," held at the Lotte World Tower in Seoul. According to the holdings unit, the executives examined

Nearly 30,000 hectares of farmland across the country were damaged by the recent torrential rain, raising concerns that agricultural product prices -- which have recently soared due to a heat wave -- will consequently rise even more. Some 27,094 ha of farmland have been damaged between July 10 and Monday due to record rainfall, according to a report released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. By region, North Jeolla Province suffered the most damage, with 14,569 ha of land f

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Friday it has decided to allow companies here to retain their existing internal standards for the use of aspartame in foods and beverages, despite the assessment of a WHO agency concluding that the artificial sweetener is "possibly carcinogenic to humans." The International Agency for Research on Cancer announced Friday it has determined aspartame should be reclassified as a Group 2B carcinogen on the basis of limited cancer in

Daewoong Group subsidiary Daewoong Bio Inc. on Friday unveiled a vision to scale up its antibiotics business to 100 billion won ($79 million) in value, amid the slowing market for antibiotics. Daewoong Bio said it has invested 50 billion won to build a new plant for manufacturing Cephalosporin, or beta-lactam antimicrobials used to manage a wide range of bacterial infections, in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province. The firm's existing Cephalosporin manufacturing plant in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Pr

Posco Group on Thursday unveiled a new vision titled "Better World with Green Steel" to aggressively ramp up its global steel competitiveness, while upholding environmental, social and corporate governance values. During a ceremony held to announce Posco's vision at the group's headquarters, attended by some 250 executives and employees, Posco said it aims to post total sales of 100 trillion won ($78 billion) by 2030, while doubling its operating profit margin logged in 2022.

In celebration of his second year in office, Shin Dong-won, chairperson of Korean food giant Nongshim, on Thursday unveiled a vision to post $1.5 billion in global sales by 2030 and become the No. 1 ramen seller in the US amid its soaring performance there. According to the company, Nongshim's plan, which is to triple its annual sales by 2030 from its current $490 million, mainly centers on scaling up its US business. For the achievement of its goal, Shin said Nongshim will review plans to

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs recently met with South Korean dairy companies in a bid to increase the pressure on them to minimize price hikes for milk, according to Food Ministry Wednesday. According to a Food Ministry spokesperson, the Food Ministry asked Korean dairy companies during a closed-door meeting to minimize price hikes for milk that are expected to take place amid a forthcoming surge in the price of raw milk. Currently, Korea Dairy Committee, a private organiza

NHN Commerce, the retail unit of South Korean information technology company NHN Corp., said Tuesday it acquired a controlling stake in Italian luxury fashion brand retailer Ikonic, in a bid to further extend its reach into the global stage. NHN Commerce now holds a 77.8 percent stake in Ikonic -- an Italian multi-brand fashion platform retailing over 250 brands in the global market. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ikonic's annual sales stands at some 100 billion won ($77 million) in

South Korea's price growth rate for bottled water recorded its highest level in 11 years following a series of price hikes in the industry, according to data Monday. According to Statistics Korea, the consumer price index of bottled water stood at 112.09, a 10.8 percent on-month increase. The nation's growth in the CPI of bottled water recorded its highest rate since June 2012, when it rose by 11.6 percent. The price rise comes as the nation's biggest bottled water manufacturers h

Travel demand to Hong Kong remains weak among South Korean travelers, data showed Sunday, with a report suggesting anti-China sentiment is still prevailing. A total of 591,998 passengers used the air routes between Korea and Hong Kong from January to May, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The number is only 35.3 percent of the passengers recorded in the same period four years ago, when the pandemic had yet to break loose. Meanwhile, the number of passenge

More than 200 representatives from 50 Asian nations, including government officials, industry stakeholders and academics, have gathered in South Korea this week to share their visions on future solutions to water scarcity in the region. The Korea Water Resources Corp., also known as K-water, is hosting the three-day general meeting of the Asia Water Council that kicked off Wednesday at a convention center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Established in 2016, the council aims to facilitate interna

McDonald's Korea on Wednesday unveiled its vision to operate a total of 500 McDonald's outlets in the country by 2030 and release an exclusive menu in the Korean market, in celebration of its 35th anniversary. "During the first half of this year, the (firm's) sales rose about 10 percent on-year to some 623 billion won ($479 million), logging its largest (semi-annual) sales since the brand's entry into Korea," McDonald's Korea CEO Kim Ki-won said during a press

South Korea posted its highest-ever semi-annual ramen exports figure amid the increased global demand for Korean instant noodle products, data found Tuesday. According to the data from the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation, a quasi-government agency, Korean ramen exports were tentatively tallied at $446.2 million, as of June. The number recorded a 16.4 percent jump from the previous record high of $383.2 million, logged in the first half of 2022. Korea's semi-annual ramen expo