Pyongyang’s Taedonggang Foodstuff Trading Company is negotiating with Chinese companies to import modern purification and processing equipment, according to a source in the city recently. The move comes as the North Korean company seeks to replace its outdated production hardware, highlighting efforts to modernize its food production processes.
Taedonggang Foodstuff Trading Company produces Pyongyang soju and Koryo liquor in both bottled and plastic bag form. Its products are sold in department stores and shops in Pyongyang and provincial capitals throughout the country.
Taedonggang Foodstuff Trading Company pays its national quota and sells its products nationwide, but it barely meets its quota.
Therefore, the company has begun to modernize its production processes, believing that expanding its domestic and overseas sales network and activating exports and foreign exchange earnings can bring greater benefits to the state.
The company aims to contribute to the state’s foreign exchange earnings by producing more competitive products and improving the quality of its products through modernization, thereby increasing the overseas recognition and sales of Pyongyang Soju and Koryo Liquor.
The Taedonggang Foodstuff Trading Company needs to import modern equipment for this purpose. Accordingly, it took a loan from the North Korean central bank to cover its foreign currency shortage.
Trade delegates from the Taedonggang Foodstuff Trading Company have gone to Sinuiju to hold close talks with Chinese companies.
“The trade delegates are moving quickly to sign a contract with China to import the needed equipment as soon as possible, shuttling back and forth between Sinuiju and Dandong (in China),” the source said. “They are also looking for investors in China who can invest in this project (to modernize production and export products).”