Korean cheerleader Lee Ah-young, now working for Taiwanese professional baseball club Taiwan Beer Leopards, poses during a press conference in Taipei, Friday. She served as the restaurant's special manager for the day ahead of its public opening on Monday. Courtesy of Dining Brands Group.

Major Korean food products are increasingly replacing dishes on dining tables worldwide as the country's top producers are targeting key local spots in export countries to promote K-food.

Some of the country's largest food enterprises like Samyang Foods, CJ Cheiljedang, Dining Brands Group and BGF Retail have taken the latest steps for market expansion. While the range of outlets for Korean food products has diversified more than ever — from convenience stores to supermarkets, franchise restaurants and street vendors — the companies almost simultaneously announced their latest strategies to keep their foreign consumers interested in their signature dishes.

BGF Retail, operator of Korea's biggest convenience store franchise CU, has recently put its private brand (PB) products on the shelves of a major discount store chain in Japan. The company said Monday it exported its 15 PB food products including instant noodles and snacks to 600 Don Quijote stores across Japan.

This is the first time PB products by a Korean convenience store brand earned dedicated shelves inside Don Quijote stores. A BGF official said this is especially encouraging considering Japan's long-known global fame as “the kingdom of convenience stores,” due to the industry's significant scale.

CU's latest PB exports came after it started shipping one of its instant noodle PB items to 450 Don Quijote stores in April and the product's export volume reached 30,000 in number. An official said the product had achieved meaningful sales without any promotional event.

CU currently exports its PB products to 20 countries, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Malaysia. Nearly 60 Korean small and medium-sized enterprises, which manufactured CU's PB products have benefited from CU's 590 overseas stores in Mongolia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. BGF said it aimed to register $10 million in sales with CU's PB products this year.

“Our PB's market strength is being proven in markets beyond Korea,” said Won Hee-hyeon, global trade team leader at BGF. “The products having entered a major retail channel in Japan, the world's largest convenience store industry, says it all.”

CJ Cheiljedang, maker of the globally popular frozen food brand Bibigo, has extended its Australian distribution outlets to Coles, the second-largest superstore chain company there. With its previous local market breakthrough at Woolworths, the largest superstore chain player in Australia, CJ has now secured more than half of the continent's entire retail networks. Coles now sells Bibigo's global bestsellers like dumplings, corn dogs and steamed rice balls.

One of the participants at Samyang Roundsquare's Splash Buldak Sauce Exchange in Los Angeles shows the Buldak sauce bottles she received in exchange for her own sauces during the event from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10. Courtesy of Samyang Roundsquare

Australia is part of the Oceanian consumer market CJ targeted. Managed by CJ's Oceanian subsidiary, Bibigo's sales outlets across the region include warehouse store chain Costco, convenience store franchise Ezymart and superstore chains New World and PAK'nSave in New Zealand.

“Our recent entry into Coles has boosted K-food's market expansion across unchartered lands overseas,” Oceanian subsidiary chief Cha Yu-jin said.

Korea's largest fried chicken franchise brand bhc has added Taiwan to its list of overseas markets. The brand's operator Dining Brands Group has signed a master franchise deal with Taiwanese food and beverage company G-Yen Hutong Group and opened on Monday its first bhc restaurant in Taiwan at Taipei Dome, a mega-sized entertainment facility with a shopping mall, movie theater, hotel and 40,000 seats for sport events.

Bhc's latest restaurant is its 26th overseas venue, with the previous ones operating in seven countries. Dining Brands Group has been especially busy this year, opening 17 new bhc restaurants overseas including their first branch in Canada, located in the city of Toronto.

“Following Hong Kong, Taiwan is our second-largest Chinese-speaking market,” Dining Brands Group CEO Song Ho-seop said. “With its high potential for dine-in industry, Taiwan is a key market for our future market expansion across Asia.”

Samyang Foods, maker of global blockbuster Buldak instant noodles, has recently ended a monthlong global tour, promoting its products in four countries. Starting in New York, the promotional event titled "Splash Buldak" drew 11,000 New Yorkers for four days. It swept local audiences in Dubai, London, Shanghai and Los Angeles in subsequent schedules, having attracted over 40,000 local visitors in total.

During the promotion in Los Angeles, Samyang held a special Sauce Exchange event earlier this month in which visitors brought their own sauces to exchange them with Samyang's signature Buldak sauce. Some 42,000 Buldak sauces were given away, according to the company.

Samyang Roundsquare, the parent company of Samyang Foods, said the latest global tour proved Buldak's worldwide popularity. On Oct. 23, the company launched a Buldak ad at Times Square in New York with a contract running until Nov. 19. The 10-second ad with the phrase “Want Something Hot?” runs 864 times each day.