CJ steps up US exports with new instant rice bowls

South Korea's food and beverage giant CJ CheilJedang Corp. on April 21 began shipment of its new Hetbahn instant rice products for US consumers from the southeastern port city of Busan.

The new products, multigrain instant rice, are set apart from previous shipments as they offer four kinds of new flavors.

Each individual multigrain bowl, sold under the Bibigo brand, is made from at least two different types of grains seasoned with salt and oil to cater to American tastes. Each brown rice bowl is mixed with jasmine rice, quinoa, wild rice, or a red and wild rice mix.

The precooked rice will be supplied from August to mainstream US retail chains, including Walmart and Kroger.

The multigrain Hetbahn line was developed to target US consumers, employing the optimal heat treatment and moisture control technology to improve taste and meet strict US standards for packaged food products.

In prelaunch taste tests, they scored 4.2 on average on a scale of 1 to 5 from US consumers, in terms of taste, flavor and purchase intention. Compared with the US premium instant rice brand Seeds of Change, the score is much higher.

Recognized as healthy food, the multigrain Hetbahn brand achieved the US certification of non-genetically modified (Non-GMO) products.




Another differentiator for Hetbahn's Bibigo line is its bowl-type container, which is convenient to use. By comparison, other pre-cooked rice sold in the US is packaged in pouches. 

The US instant rice market has been growing at an average of 14% per year to reach 640 billion won ($520 million) in 2021. But low-priced steamed rice takes the majority of the market.

As the US instant rice market is projected to exceed 1 trillion won in 2025, the demand for premium products is expected to pick up.

In particular, the segment of rice products, including Hetbahn and frozen fried rice, has been expanding by over 40% per year.

GLOBAL STRATEGY PRODUCT

With the shipment of the multigrain Hetbahn products, CJ will further expand the production of its seven major products targeting global consumers. Among them are the traditional Korean side dish Kimchi, Korean sauces such as the spicy red chili paste gochujang and dried laver.

Those products, dubbed its global strategy products, saw their US sales rise 30% on-year in 2021.

"When we launched Hetbahn (in 1996), nobody had ever thought of buying pre-cooked rice," said a CJ Cheiljedang official.

"Now that we added multigrain bowls, Hetbahn will become a representative K-food product beyond Korea."

In 2020, CJ set a milestone to surpass 1 trillion won in sales from a single food item: Bibigo mandu, the company's prized dumpling brand.

Write to Soo-jung Ha at agatha77@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.