Jan 30, 2025
Kwangdong Pharmaceutical’s world-first health functional food product
Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, one of Deer Industry New Zealand’s partners in South Korea, recently delivered some encouraging results, with the company launching its world-first health functional food (HFF) product: a product for prostate health, featuring New Zealand velvet.
"Kwangdong's Deer Velvet Prostate Supplement with New Zealand deer velvet is the first case of a health functional food with deer velvet as the key ingredient. This achievement, which has been certified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of South Korea after completing human clinical trials, is a milestone not only domestically but also internationally," said a joint statement from Ilbum Park, Head of Kwangdong Pharmacetuical Natural Products R&D Centre, and Jinsoo Kim, Project Manager.
Notably, the traceability and quality assurance of New Zealand velvet features in the company’s marketing, with promotional material featuring a stick of New Zealand velvet with a VelTrak tag in clear prominence.
Marketing material from Kwangdong Pharmaceutical featuring a VelTrak tag.
"I’m hugely excited to see Kwangdong’s latest product, proudly featuring New Zealand velvet, go to market,” says DINZ CEO Rhys Griffiths. “While we have been operating in the healthy foods space in South Korea for a while now, this new market segment of health functional foods, which means companies can promote approved claims, represents a massive opportunity to combine traditional Asian medicine with the rigours of Western scientific testing.”
Health functional foods in South Korea have been a focus for DINZ in recent years, building partnerships with the likes of Kwangdong Pharmaceutical – companies that have strong credibility and brand presence in the market. Eventually, the health functional foods space is where DINZ would like to see velvet end-user consumption go in China also.
And with both countries seeing a growing pride in their traditional domestic culture, coupled with a growing awareness and emphasis globally on health and wellness, it is this kind of value-driven relationship that DINZ would like to see flourish.
