As a long-term project spanning over five years, this study was carried out to provide basic data required to conduct research on the food industry and to develop relevant policies going forward. The aims of the study include① deriving current issues of the food industry and its downstream/upstream sectors and ② and proposing development strategies to materialize a high-value-added transformation of the agricultural and fishery industries.
Given its characteristics as a preliminary analysis, the first-year study is mainly intended to examine macroscopic changes in the structure and properties of the food industry by analyzing structural changes and market performance of each sub-sector of food industries such as food processing, distribution and food service sectors. Moreover, in this study, we aimed to select processing sectors for the second-to-fourth year studies by investigating the linkages between the food industry and its downstream/upstream sectors after studying the connection between the food processing sector and the agricultural industry and consumers' evaluation of domestic products. Although previous food industry researches had been fragmentary and partial, we differentiated this study from other studies since we broadly analyzed changes in the industrial structure of the food distribution sector as well as the food processing and food service sectors, with diverse statistical raw data.
For our analysis, we categorized the food industry into food processing, food distribution and food service sectors, and then subdivided each sector into businesses according to the Standard Industry Classification. The food processing sector generally had substantial influences on agricultural, forestry and fishery industries (which provide raw materials). Meat processing and dairy farming, in particular, vastly affected the livestock industry. The food processing sector had minimal impact on other businesses due to high contribution of final consumers to product sales, whereas the food service sector's influence on production of other businesses was nearly 2.5 times the overall industry average.
Within the food processing sector, meat and grain processing businesses contributed much to the shipment amount and value-added. Beverage and seasoning processing businesses contributed much to the shipment amount and value-added despite relatively smaller numbers of companies and employees compared to other businesses.
Companies with less than 10 employees occupied 55% of the total food processing companies, while companies with 100 employees or more accounted for merely 3% to the food processing sector. However, companies with 100 employees or more generated 47% of total sales, whereas companies with less than 10 employees generated only 12%, This indicates properties of a paltry industrial structure.
In the food distribution sector, wholesalers account for 25% of total employees, 49% of total sales, and 34% of total value-added. General retailers, on the other hand, account for 49% of total employees, 40% of to the total sales, and 45% of total value-added. In the meantime, Korean food restaurants dominate the food service sector, occupying nearly 60% of total companies, employees, sales and value-added.
The food industry contributes 5% to the national value-added and 10% to the number of employees nationwide. The food processing and service sectors made the highest contribution of 2.5% to the value-added and 6% to the number of employees, respectively.
According to our analysis, the food processing sector had the higher concentration ratio than the manufacturing industry. The beverage and seasoning processing industry, in particular, was found to have a relatively higher concentration ratio as the top three companies in each business contributed approximately 50% to the total shipment amount. The food processing sector ranked the first in labor productivity, followed by the food distribution and food service sectors. Since the 1990s, the gap between food processing companies of different sizes grew substantially because large-sized companies were able to quickly boost labor productivity. The total factor productivity of the food processing sector is plunging, and according to multi-variable index analysis, its gap with the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry as a whole is further expanding. Labor productivity is climbing in food processing in contrast to a declining trend in the food distribution sector. A steady level of labor productivity is maintained in the food service sector.
Our financial analysis of the food industry showed that the industry did not have favorable growth, profitability and stability. Nevertheless, the recently growing functional food processing and other food processing (such as ready-to-cook for lunch boxes and other meals) recorded a relatively high profitability.
In the food distribution sector, profitability of general retailers has been gradually increasing. In the food service sector, the institutional cafeteria business has been growing rapidly with a relatively higher profitability. In addition, the R&D intensity of the food processing sector has recently been surging, but the size of R&D efforts is clearly lower than the processing industry's average, which appears to be in line with the aforementioned drop in the total factor productivity.
We studied the degree of connection between the food industry and the agricultural industry (the downstream industry of food processing and food service sectors) through domestic farm produce usage rates and raw material transportation passageways. In the food processing sector, domestic poultry, pork, red chilli pepper powder and Korean cabbages were highly used, whereas domestic rice, beans and beef were used relatively less since imported raw materials were favored due to better prices as well as the consistent quality and stable supply. Sales and raw material usage rates displayed a negative correlation, implying that large-sized companies used more imported raw materials. The food service sector used a lot of imported beef, poultry and seafood mainly owing to better prices and an insignificant difference in consumer preferences to domestic and imported seafood. According to our price sensitivity of processed food, domestic food materials were favored if the price difference between domestic and imported food materials stayed within 1.5x.
Given our analysis on the linkages between the downstream/upstream industries and the food industry, we found a considerable number of competitive processed products made of only domestic raw materials in the market. Based on our survey conducted on food processing companies and consumers, we learned that domestic raw materials for rice cakes, tofu, fermented soy paste, red chilli pepper paste and beef had competitiveness. Thus, these food categories should be able to contribute to boosting farm income by enlarging consumption of processed food if proper quality control and supply systems were established.
Our analysis results indicate that businesses related with the processing of meat, grains, fruit, and vegetables should be capable of expanding productivity and the value-added in the agricultural industry. Therefore, we intend to continue studying these businesses in the second- and third-year studies going forward.