The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says it will actively promote the export of food ingredients, aiming to foster the industry as the nation’s new growth engine.

The ministry plans to supply food ingredients to around seven-thousand cafeterias in overseas plants of Korean companies, and Korean franchise restaurants operating in foreign countries.

The ministry is also seeking to identify and promote Korean signature foods, such as bibimbap and bulgogi, and to dispatch Korean food chefs to foreign restaurants.

The ministry aims to expand the nation’s food ingredient exports to three-and-a-half billion dollars by 2012 from this year’s estimated 900 million dollars.