‘Mandu’ spirit: South Korean enters dumpling game with automation
South Korean firm’s effort is an example of how technology is transforming the food industry, in this case making over the image of frozen dumplings as a cheap and unhealthy product made by small companies
Move over pot stickers, here comes another Asian dumpling.
South Korea’s largest food company is making a multimillion-dollar bet on “mandu”, developing its own machines to automate the normally labour-intensive production of the Korean dumpling and building factories around the world.
“It will be the next kimchi,” predicted Cho Gun Ae, a senior researcher at CJ CheilJedang Corp, who has spent more than 20 years researching dumpling recipes and production.
The nearly 4-year-old effort is an example of how technology is transforming the food industry, in this case making over the image of frozen dumplings as a cheap and unhealthy product made by small companies. Automation made the quality, the look and the size of each bite-size dumpling consistent and significantly improved productivity, Cho said.
CJ recently opened a factory in New Jersey, its third in the US, and has expanded production queues in China and snapped up local companies in Vietnam and Russia so it can churn out more of its Bibigo-brand frozen dumplings.
