The ASEAN-Korea Centre (Secretary General Chung Hae-moon) will host the ‘Korean Market Access Seminar for Lao Agricultural Products’ on 28 January in Vientiane, Lao PDR (Don Chan Palace Hotel) in cooperation with the Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce.  At the Seminar, agriculture experts from Korea will give lectures to some 60 participants that consist of Lao business people and related sector government officials. The topics to be covered include ‘Development of Health Functional Food Using Lao Herbs and Spices’, ‘Access to Korean Traditional Medicine Market for Lao Herbs and Spices’, ‘Measures for Food Processing with Appropriate Technology’, ‘Korean Market Access for Lao Coffee’ and so forth. The lectures are expected to be particularly useful and practical for the participants as real success cases of product development and export will be shared.  Lao PDR, a producer of a wide range of quality herbs and spices, ranks in the top 20-30 range among 225 countries in the biodiversity/plant diversity rankings released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The country also cultivates premium class coffee in the Bolaven plateaus, an area located in the southern region that has an altitude of over 1000 meters. Although high quality Lao agricultural foods such as the aforementioned are not very familiar to Korean people as yet, they could have a high competitive edge in the Korean market if developed into products that satisfy the Korean consumers’ tastes.   The ‘Korean Market Access Seminar for Lao Agricultural Products’ aims to strengthen the product development capacity of Lao agricultural companies while support their expansion to the Korean market so as to introduce more diverse agricultural products of Lao PDR to Korean consumers. The ASEAN-Korea Centre hopes that the Seminar will, through meeting such aims contribute to boosting trade and economic cooperation between Korea and Lao PDR.   Источник: aseankorea.org/include/eng/bconView01.asp?pageNum=40&page=1&boa_num=7950&boa_gubun=10&pageReturn=page41-1&boa_cnt=8