The Good Food Institute (GFI) Asia Pacific has initiated a partnership with South Korea’s World FoodTech Council, focused on accelerating domestic alternative protein innovation.

The World FoodTech Council is a national consortium with over 3,300 members. Its work centres around establishing global standards, certification support systems and international cooperation on emerging food technologies.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by the two organisations during a ceremony in Seoul today (15 October 2025) at the World FoodTech Conference. The ceremony was attended by GFI APAC chief executive officer, Mirte Gosker, and World FoodTech Council co-chair Ki Won Lee.

In a keynote speech during the conference, Gosker said: “For more than a decade, South Korea has invested more money into scientific R&D as a percentage of GDP than any other Asian country – an asset the country is now leveraging to become an alternative protein powerhouse”.

She added: “Just as Asia was early in understanding the untapped potential of renewable energy technologies to satisfy soaring global demand, every country will inevitably need innovative ways to make more meat with fewer resources – and our region is once again laying the groundwork to sell the world what it needs”.

Under the MOU, the two organisations will collaborate to support strategic regulatory policies on novel foods in Korea, strengthen domestic R&D initiatives, and catalyse new scientific talent development pathways for researchers in adjacent fields.

World FoodTech Council’s Lee commented: “Food-tech tackles the defining challenges of our era – from population growth and climate change to public health in the age of AI. In partnership with GFI, we are committed to positioning K-FoodTech as a key driver of the future food system and a leader in this transformative industry.”

Innovation in Korea’s alternative protein ecosystem has been making good progress over the past year, with GFI currently working to establish GFI Korea, led by its South Korea start-up lead Yeonjoo La.

In December 2024, North Jeolla Province announced the launch of its Food Tech Research Support Center, a facility dedicated to plant-based food development and set to open next year. During the same month, the Food Tech Industry Promotion Act was enacted to establish a foundation for the convergence of the food industry with cutting-edge technologies, due to go into effect this December with South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) as the responsible agency.

In March 2025, Korea announced the launch of an additional Food Tech Research Support Center, this time focused on cultivated meat, set to open in 2027 with support from MAFRA.

GFI noted that while Korea is making exciting developments in the space, it still observes a ‘structural gap’ in the integration of the country’s expertise within global discussions.

For example, at this year’s AltProtein Asia scientific symposium – co-hosted by GFI APAC at Singapore’s Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein – scientists joined from Singapore, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to exchange knowledge on tackling technical bottlenecks hindering taste, scale and price parity for alternative proteins.

In 2026, GFI said it will ensure Korea is ‘not just present, but takes a central role’ in the dialogue, directly benefitting Korean researchers and allowing others to benefit from their expertise.

GFI’s South Korea start-up lead, La, commented: “South Korea is home to one of Asia’s most advanced tech ecosystems, including 10 biotech innovation and manufacturing clusters, dozens of alternative protein companies, and the highest number of researchers per capita of any country on Earth”.

“By connecting Korea’s scientists, policymakers and technologists with their overseas counterparts, we can supercharge plant-based and cultivated meat development, rapidly increase regional regulatory knowledge-sharing, and create an impact far greater than the sum of its parts.”