[Next FTA] 5: Tudung-Clad Diners Slurp "Han River Ramen"... K-Convenience Stores Make Inroads in Malaysia with 100% Halal Products

At 12:30 p.m. during the lunch rush, a CU store near KLCC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was packed with customers. As soon as the door opened, the spicy-sweet aroma of tteokbokki and dakgangjeong, along with the rich smell of ramen, filled the air. Most of the customers were Muslim women in their 20s wearing tudungs (hijabs) and office workers from nearby businesses. At one side of the seating area, three women in their 20s sat together, sharing tteokbokki and dakgangjeong and repeatedly exclaiming "Sedap," the Malay word for delicious. It was as if the convenience store scenes from K-dramas had been brought to life in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Employees prepare freshly cooked food at CU's first store in Malaysia. BGF Retail

K-food has become an everyday snack in Malaysia. CU, which entered the market through a partnership between BGF Retail and local company Mynews Holdings, has opened around 190 stores and is on the verge of surpassing 200. Including Emart24, which has about 100 stores, the number of K-convenience stores in the country exceeds 300. They are shaking the long-standing dominance of Japanese-owned FamilyMart, which has about 500 stores.

"Our stores receive an average of around 300 visitors a day, but those in downtown office districts see 700 to 800," said Lee Hyun-gyu, team leader of the Malaysia FTF team at BGF Retail's Overseas Business Division. The key driver of growth is "counter food," prepared on the spot and sold at the counter. Popular items include tteokbokki, dakgangjeong, hot dogs, fish cakes and Hangang ramen.

CU Malaysia's New Menu. BGF Retail

Sausages made with chicken... The winning move: 100% halal certification

Behind this boom is rigorous "halal localization." It is impossible to gain a foothold in the market without certification that allows Muslims, who make up more than 60% of the population, to eat with confidence.

In fact, every ready-to-eat food item at CU stores is made with ingredients that are 100% halal-certified. Pork, a prohibited ingredient, is completely excluded. Korean-style hot dog sausages are made entirely with chicken, rather than beef, which can become tough during processing, to give them a tender texture.

Gochujang sauce and tteokbokki rice cakes, which can produce alcohol during fermentation, are sourced entirely from halal-only production lines in Korea. The local central kitchen (a dedicated food preparation facility) that makes items such as gimbap has also completed rigorous halal certification. The ramen selection consists exclusively of halal varieties developed with plant-based ingredients, without beef tallow or pork lard.

"People here share information on social media quickly, so even a minor mistake in ingredient labeling or a single cross-contamination issue could deal an irreparable blow to the entire brand," Lee said. "In particular, at stores in the east and north, where Muslims make up an overwhelming proportion of the population, we completely block the entry of non-halal products and maintain several layers of inspection procedures."

Freshly fried dakgangjeong is on display at a CU near KLCC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reporter Lim Onyu.

"Certification takes months"... The "halal time lag" to overcome

However, the "time lag in launching new products due to halal certification" remains a challenge.

Social media trends now run in cycles of just a few weeks, but verifying ingredients in new products and registering them locally as halal takes at least two to four months of administrative processing. Even when local consumers see on social media in real time new products that have become hugely popular in Korea, such as desserts or items featuring particular fruits like ube, it can take months for them to reach stores, creating a mismatch with the trend.

Chilled bakery products containing dairy ingredients such as cream or butter face a high certification hurdle because of concerns about cross-production at Korean factories. This also means the company must find alternative manufacturers locally.

"No matter how strong the buzz around the Korean Wave is, we can secure long-term competitiveness only by narrowing the gap between stringent halal requirements and the fast pace of the race to keep up with trends," Lee said.

Production support: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Korea Rural Economic Institute

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.