Korean restaurant companies see huge drop in number of outlets in Vietnam in one year

It has been revealed that the amount of food exports by Korean food service companies last year increased by more than 20% compared to the previous year.
According to the data, food exports by food service companies that expanded overseas last year reached 67.2 billion won (about 7.5 billion yen), up 24% from 54.19 billion won in 2022. This is the second-highest figure five years ago.
This is an increase of more than 130% compared to the 29 billion won in 2019. In addition, food exports were 12,685 tons, up 22.4% from 10,357 tons the previous year, and 5.1% from 2019.
Among the exported food ingredients, "prepared foods" that help with cooking were the most popular at 25.6 billion won, followed by "sauces and mixed seasonings" at 19.9 billion won.
The survey was conducted among companies registered in the Fair Trade Commission's affiliated business information system as of September 2023.
The survey was conducted on 2,965 food service companies that participated in the survey. Of the companies that responded to the survey, 125 companies, or 4%, have expanded overseas. The number of companies expanding overseas in 2023 is expected to be 1.1% of the total in 2022.
This was roughly the same as the previous year's 124 companies. On the other hand, the number of brands of companies expanding overseas decreased from 141 to 133, and the number of stores also decreased from 3,833 to 3,685.
In particular, the number of brands and outlets of food service companies operating in Vietnam decreased significantly. The number of brands fell from 37 to 31, and the number of outlets fell by 5.
The number of overseas stores decreased from 19 to 362. The most common reason for the reduction or closure of overseas stores was the decline in sales due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus. In addition, the current situation, such as the supply and demand of human resources and ingredients,
Some companies cited the difficulty of operating a store locally and limitations due to cultural differences as reasons for their decision. However, Vietnam, which saw the largest decline in the number of stores, was chosen as the number one country in which restaurant companies would like to expand.
The country where Korean food service companies have the most overseas outlets is the United States with 778 outlets, followed by China with 767, Vietnam with 362, Thailand with 285 and the Philippines with 2.
There are 39 locations in the United States and 133 locations in Japan.