The Korea Rural Economic Insitute reported in 2018 that eco-friendly agricultural product market in South Korea grewyearly 5.8% and estimated the sales to reach around 2.1 trillion won ($1.7 billion) by 2025. More and more people prefer organic food and antibiotics-free meat and the industry is moving fast to meet fast changing market demand.

▲ CEO chef Myeongduk Jeon

But this demand is not only affecting producers and supermarkets but also restaurants that sell food made with healthier ingredients. In this respect, a dine-out franchise Udeung Food is worthy of attention as CEO chef Myeongduk Jeon is famous for his capability and choice of healthy ingredients as proved in a number of successful restaurant brands: Chonnom Meat House, Changwon Gukbab Sunsaeng and Changwon Udeung Hanwoo.

Antibiotics-free Korean beef is about 40% more expensive than ordinary Korean beef and it takes around 2 to 3 years for a farm to obtain the license. Neverthless, Jeon is determined to circulate this quality Korean beef with affordableprice. And the determination seems achievable considering the fact that the American antibiotics-free beef ‘MEYER’ has seen a 20% increase in sales this year at kurly.com and goodsteak.co.kr

Jeon studied at Hattori Nutrition College in Japan and has known nothing but meat for the last 10 years. He has researched on meat and travled far and wide in search of better and healthier meat. When he thought he was ready, he opened the current Udeung Hanwoo in 2012 and has achieved average 2 billion won ($1.6 million) yearly sales by quality of meat, unique menu, neat plating and excellent services.

Sharing the same vision in healthy food and new level of food processing and services, CEO Jeon and Director Jeon are working on smart processing facilities to be introduced next year and securing on/offline channels to supply antibiotics-free meat so that more people can enjoy healthier food.