Population and climate have emerged as key words in the catering market. Experts argued that attention should be paid to the supply stability of environmentally friendly agricultural products for school meals and group catering markets targeting the elderly.
On the 12th, the Chairperson of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Food and Marine Affairs Committee (Democratic Party, Dangjin, Chungnam) and Democratic Party Representative Yoon Jun-byung (Jeonbuk, Jeongeup-Gochang) and People's Power Representative Kim Seon-gyo (Gyeonggi, Yeoju-Yangpyeong) held a parliamentary discussion meeting on "Development Plans for Catering in the Era of the 4 Trillion Won Public Catering Integrated Platform (eaT)" at the National Assembly's Members' Hall. eaT is a public catering food materials procurement system operated by aT (Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation) since 2010.
Senior Research Fellow Hwang Yun-jae from the Korea Rural Economic Institute, in a presentation on "Trends and Prospects of the Korean Catering Industry," stated, "As of 2023, the size of the domestic public catering market is 9 trillion 778.6 billion won, with elementary, middle, and high school meals accounting for 40.4% (3 trillion 955.0 billion won) while the proportion of nursing hospitals is only 9.5% (926.7 billion won)."
He continued, "Until now, the education sector's proportion was large, but as aging accelerates, the demand for nursing facilities or social welfare facilities targeting the elderly will increase instead of school meals. We need to predict and respond to changing catering demands in advance."
Kim Hun-gyu, Director of the Gyeonggi Agricultural Promotion Corporation, in a presentation on "Excellent Examples of Local Government Catering Policies in Response to the Climate Crisis," pointed out, "Recently, the stable supply of environmentally friendly agricultural products used in catering is being threatened by the climate crisis." He cited an example, "For instance, this year, due to abnormal high temperatures in the hot summer, the supply of spinach became unstable, so spinach purchased in the spring was blanched and quick-frozen and supplied from August to September."
Director Kim emphasized, "As public catering is an important industry that encompasses all stages from production to supply, cooking, and consumption, sustainable school meal supply plans need to be established in response to the climate crisis."
President Hong Mun-pyo of aT said, "Catering plays a key role in the nutrition and health of the nation from infants to the elderly, and in the formation of food culture. We will continue to do our best to improve the safety and competitiveness of public catering."