Theborn Korea's meal kit product origin has recently become a topic of controversy in online communities.
Recently, a post titled "Baek Jong-won's 'Are we digging up our land to do business?'" has spread across various online communities.
Baek Jong-won, the representative of Theborn Korea, introduced meal kit products in a video posted on the YouTube channel "Baek Jong-won" last July, saying, "I will help expand the market for agricultural and livestock products."
However, the main ingredient of the product, chicken, was not sourced from Korea. The detailed information for the product on Theborn Mall states, "Brined chicken meat (from Brazil) 97.81%." Some netizens criticized this, saying, "It's contradictory to say you're helping domestic farmers while actually using imported goods."
Earlier, the representative, Baek, faced controversy last month over the price of the 'Baek Ham Gift Set' sold ahead of the Lunar New Year.
At that time, Theborn Mall sold the Baek Ham Gift Set at a 45% discount for 28,500 won during the Lunar New Year holiday. However, some pointed out that it was more expensive than CJ CheilJedang's Spam (18,500 won to 24,000 won), arguing that the regular price was inflated to apply a large discount, which they termed 'price manipulation.'
In response, Baek explained, "While selling at a 45% discount, there is a margin of 1,500 won per set, but when including company operating expenses, the margin is virtually zero. As a latecomer, production costs are inevitably higher." Theborn Mall had previously listed the product as 'out of stock' but recently removed it entirely from the sales list.