Emart partners with KOTRA to help S.Korean SMEs export

South Korea’s largest hypermarket chain Emart Inc. is partnering with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to expand its overseas franchises and expand exports of small and medium-sized suppliers.

Emart announced on Thursday that it has signed a business agreement with KOTRA to support the overseas expansion of Emart and its partners.

Under the agreement, KOTRA will identify suitable partners for Emart's overseas franchise business through 129 trade offices in 84 countries around the world and support consultation and contact.

Through this, Emart plans to expand its overseas franchise stores and actively support the export of excellent Korean SME products.

Emart's distribution know-how and KOTRA's overseas network are expected to create synergistic effects.

Emart currently operates two and three hypermarkets in Vietnam and Mongolia, respectively, and 18 no-brand specialty stores in the Philippines under the franchise format.

These stores have been serving as a bridgehead for exporting excellent Korean SME products.

As of last year, 433 SMEs exported their products through Emart's overseas franchise stores.

"Emart's overseas franchise stores are an important platform for the export of excellent Korean SME products," said Kang Hee-seok, CEO of Emart. "We hope that this collaboration between KOTRA and Emart will serve as a shared growth model to promote SME products to more countries."

Write to Young Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com