Food War between Korea, China and Thailand: Gim(dried seaweed)

Gim, sheets of laver (dried seaweed) is a beneficial product to Korean fishermen. Last year, Korea exported 300 billion won of Gims, and this amount is increasing every year. The exports value of Gim are even more than ginseng in Korea.
The neighboring Asia countries are trying to capitalise on increasing popularity of Gim as well.
China is expanding its Gim farms in recent years, and Thailand, which does not produce any Kim, is making delicious snacks from Gim imported from Korea and China.

Only countries in the world that produce Gim commercially are Korea, China, and Japan.
Taiwan and New Zealand also produce Gim, but not enough and insignificant to be on statistics.


In the 1990s, most of the high-quality Gims produced in Korea were exported to Japan. Japan was the country which consumed most of the good quality Gim imported from China and Korea, as well as japan.
However, the market changed in the 2000s. In Japan, production and consumption of Gim have decreased while the production and consumption of Gim in China and Korea have increased.
More and more people are looking for Gim in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia as well.
In the past Gim was called a black paper and considered as a kind of disgusting food in the US and Europe but now it is turning into a well-being healthy snack that can replace potato chips. The Wall Street Journal has also introduced Gim as 'super food with magical efficacy'. It is rich in vitamin A, protein and calcium.
In Korea and Japan, people usually eats gim together with rice as meal but in other countries Gim is favorite for snacks with drinks.

Currently, the country with the most export of Gim is Korea and  China.
Korea exported 300 billion won of Gim and China exported 150 billion won of Gim last year.
Korea's exports of Gim have increased five times in ten years and Gim is a second most exported product next to tuna among marine products.

There are three kinds of Gim products: dry Gim which is made by thinning and drying seaweed cut to a size smaller than that of A4 paper and seasoned Gim which is dry Gim seasoned with salt and oil and Gim snack, processed Gim product.
Among these, Korea is the strongest country in the seasoning Gim market.
Japanese seasoned Gim may be suitable for the taste of Japanese with soy sauce and sugar, but it does not fit the taste of foreigner and it failed to globalize. On the other hand Korea seasoned Gim which is flavored with sesame oil, perilla oil and salt is popular in foreign countries, especially North America.
In Korea, the country sold the seasoned Gim to the US for 70 billion won last year. The country that imported seasoning Gim was 32 countries ten years ago, but now it reaches 90 countries. Africa and the Russia are also customers of seasoning Gim.

But Korean food experts say they should watch out for China, the top producer of Gim. In fact, the production of Chinese Gim has nearly doubled from 600,000 tons in 2003 to 1.14 million in 2013.
China has produced large amounts of Gim in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and has recently been producing large-scale farms in Guangdong and Fujian provinces.
"Since the 1990s, China has been pouring a lot of capital into Gim farming, including the introduction of aquaculture technology and facilities from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong," said Jang Hong Suk, professor at KMI.
In the last decade, the production of Gim in Korea has increased from 200,000 tons to 410,000 tons (as of 2014), but it is not yet half of China.
If China, which consumes a lot of domestic produced Gim for its own country, changes its direction to export, it could be a big threat to Korea's export front.
Currently, the inflow of low-priced Chinese Gims are gradually increasing in countries such as the US, Southeast Asia, and Japan.
On the other hand, Japan's production of Gim has fallen to third place after China and Korea.


However, Thailand is the country that should be noted in global gim market. It is a country that does not produce any Gim but Thailand's Gim products exports are in third place after Korea and China, and its growth is also explosive. Thailand, which imported small amounts of dried seaweed from Korea and China 10 years ago, has been increasing its imports since six years ago.
Nowadays it is said that about half of Korea dried seaweed is sold to Thailand.

The history of making Gim snack in Thailand is only 10 years.
The founder of Taikenoi Co. Ltd., named Itipppyradadefan launched a Gim snack product in Thailand and it was big hit.
Tao Kae Noi Crispy Seaweed Snack occupies more than half of the Thai Gim market and operates a specialty shop in Bangkok including 'Terminal 21'.
As the Gim snack market grows in Thailand, many other large companies in Thailand also entered the market such as Singha, a renowned beer company created a separate subsidiary for the production and sale of Gim snack market last year.

Thailand also succeeded in exporting Gim snack products. KMI's Jang Hong-suk said, "The amount of Thai Gim exports is currently estimated at over 30 billion won, and we need to keep an eye on the increase in the amount every year." "Thailand is expanding its market to not only China, Japan, and the United States but also Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Thailand, a food powerhouse in Asia, has been supporting the food industry with its policy slogan of "Kitchen of the World." It has already become the world's largest producer and exporter of canned tuna.