On the 23rd, Sege Food's Ulsan factory in Ulju-gun, Ulsan was visited. Four sensor cameras attached to an artificial intelligence (AI) sorter, approximately 2 meters in height and 4.5 meters in length, were scanning almonds pouring along the conveyor belt in real-time. Almonds with partially peeled skins were automatically classified into the defective product line, while solid almonds were directed to the production line. The sorted almonds underwent roasting and a sugar coating process, then were evenly mixed with honey butter powder inside a cylindrical machine. After maturation and packaging, the familiar 'Mugabeon Honey Butter Almond' is completed.

On this day, Sege Food, which operates the nut snack brand 'Mugabeon,' held a completion ceremony for the new Ulsan factory. The new factory is an integrated production base that consolidates the nut, jerky, and fish product lines previously scattered across factories in Yeongdo, Busan, and Gunpo, Gyeonggi. A total of KRW 100 billion was invested to construct the facility, which consists of three buildings over four floors, with a total floor area of 27,673㎡ (approximately 8,370 pyeong). With the factory expansion, the annual production capacity has increased to 14,000 tons, more than 1.6 times the previous capacity of 9,000 tons.

Sege Food established the new Ulsan factory to respond to the rapidly increasing overseas demand as the popularity of K-nut snacks rises. Sege Food's overseas sales grew from USD 10 million (approximately KRW 14.4 billion) in 2021 to USD 12 million (approximately KRW 17.2 billion) in 2022, and USD 16 million (approximately KRW 23 billion) last year. The number of export countries has expanded to over 20, including Japan, the United States, China, and Vietnam, with overseas sales accounting for about 25% of total sales last year. Sege Food plans to increase the volume of overseas exports from the current 15% to 30% through the new factory.

As the popularity of K-snacks rises in the global market, small and medium-sized enterprises that have entered the U.S. are facing difficulties due to the tariff policies initiated by Trump. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Customs Service in August on 667 small and medium-sized enterprises exporting to the U.S., more than half of the responding companies (53.8%) expected their U.S. export volume to decrease by 10-50% this year due to mutual tariff impacts.

The United States is one of the key countries in Sege Food's global business. Over the past five years, the U.S. accounted for about 10% of total exports, the second highest after Japan. With the emergence of tariff risks, the need to diversify export channels has increased, and Sege Food plans to mitigate the export risk to the U.S. market, which is expected to face difficulties due to the Trump administration's mutual tariff imposition policy, by diversifying its export markets. A Sege Food representative stated, "With expanded production capacity, we plan to enter the South American market following the Middle East, considering the tariff risks."

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