Sample Case of FTA Benefit
CJ Cheiljedang's "Bibigo Dumpling" was introduced and praised as a successful example of the Korea-US FTA at the "Korea-US Business Summit" held at the American Chamber of Commerce in Washington on June 28 (local time). The event was attended by President Moon Jae-in, 52 members of the Korean Economic Delegation and 170 representatives of the US political and business worlds.
According to CJ Cheiljedang, Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who attended the Korea-US Business Summit, praised the Bibigo Dumpling case which substantially contributed to the revitalization of the local economy and job creation.
"CJ built a state-of-the-art facility in Fullerton, California and is producing really delicious dumplings there,” chairman Royce said. "I've been enjoying them for many years and they are the best dumplings. At the time of the conclusion of the Korea-US FTA, only 70 employees were working and one production line was running. Thanks to three years of continuous growth, over 270 employees are now working and three production lines rolling out dumplings 24 hours a day. CJ dumplings are a great product. But the Korea-US FTA enabled CJ to build factories in the city and hire Americans. In the end, CJ dumplings are exported worldwide to Latin America, Australia and Asia. They are becoming a worldwide hit."
Meanwhile, CJ CheilJedang, which tapped into the US market for the first time in 2010 with its “Bibigo Dumpling” achieved a market share of 11.3% last year and exceeded 100 billion won (US$90 million) in annual sales. This feat is quite meaningful in that CJ CheilJedang won the first place after dethroning the dumpling brand “Ling Ling” which had dominated the American dumpling market for 25 years.
CJ CheilJedang is planning to steadily expand its US business by establishing its third production base in the eastern US this year, accelerating its market penetration, and making a foray into the business-to-business (B2B) market. Through this strategy, the company aims to ramp up sales in the US to about 300 billion won (US$270 million) by 2020.