The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Minister Jeong Hwang-geun, MAFRA) and the Korean Food Promotion Institute (Director Lim Gyeong-sook) announced that they will hold the third annual Korean food video contest “2022 Korean Food Video Contest for Foreigners” from Aug. 22nd to Sept. 30th.
It consists of two sections ― a cooking video “Cookbang” about kimchi and Korean traditional ingredients called "Jang," and an eating video “Mukbang” about any Korean food. A total of USD 106,000 will be awarded to 76 winners chosen based on the number of views and expert assessments.
Foreign passport holders either living in Korea or elsewhere are eligible to join the contest. If a participant’s social media account has over 500 subscribers, the participant can choose Group A. Those with less than 500 subscribers can choose Group B.
In Group A, the Cookbang winner will receive USD 7,000 and the Meokbang winner USD 6,000, while those in Group B will get USD 3,000 and USD 2,500, respectively. To encourage a bigger turnout, the event will also give out 12 excellence, 20 participation and 40 other awards.
When the first contest was held in 2020, as many as 510 teams participated in in the short application period of seven days. Last year’s contest attracted a greater interest from foreigners with 989 teams from 70 countries presenting 1,318 videos.
In this contest, Actor Anupam Tree Party from India who gained worldwide reputation after his appearance in the drama series ‘Squid Game’, and influencers with a great interest in Korean food per each region introduced and promoted the contest through the contest’s promotional video.
During the contest period, MAFRA plans to collaborate with overseas Korean Cultural Centers (7 locations) * to publish the contest information on the website of government organizations, social media and others in each country, and encourage foreigners interested in Korean food to participate in the contest. * Japan, Indonesia, Belgium, India, Italy, Russia, and South Africa
Applications can be submitted only on the contest's official website (www.playkoreanfood.com). Participants can upload video clips of up to 30 minutes about the topics on the contest's official website and their own YouTube channels or Instagram accounts.
Mr. Yang Ju-phil, Head of Food Industry Policy Bureau of MAFRA said, “Recently, the rising global popularity of Korean media contents such as dramas and films is creating a good environment for promoting the Korean food” stating, “We hope that this contest will serve as an opportunity to fully introduce the excellence and charm of the Korean food to the world.”