The 2024 Pyongyang Underground Shop Spring Commodity Exhibition was held between May 3 and 9.

The show drew the Pyongyang Municipal Industry Management Bureau, Pyongyang Foodstuff Complex, provincial shipment wholesale stores, provincial, city and county food procurement units and other commodity supply units for the Pyongyang Underground Shop.

“The exhibition was a good occasion that inspired the participating units to produce more and better products symbolizing their provinces and factories so as to reduce the gap between the capital and the provinces and spur distinctive development of the regional economy,” said Jang Yong Il, section chief of the Ministry of Commerce.

On display there were more than 741 000 goods of over 1 970 kinds, including all kinds of local agricultural products, specialities and industrial products such as confectionery, soft drinks, condiments, daily necessities, household goods, electric appliances, sanitary goods and various kinds of rare grains, edible herbs and dried seafood.

The foods presented by the Yua General Foodstuff Factory and Kwangbok Kumgangsan Foodstuff Factory had highly been appreciated at the light industrial goods exhibition “Development of Light Industry-2023” held last year and were very popular among visitors this time, too.

According to a staffer of the Yua General Foodstuff Factory, the factory developed more than ten kinds of new products for the exhibition, such as melon-aroma cream layer cake, strawberry cream layer cake and milk chocolate-flavour cake that are tasty and crisp and have sweet fruit aroma. Especially, people’s demand was high for the steamed bread which can be conveniently consumed and the beef rib-flavour instant noodles which are chewy and peppery.

A variety of functional soy sauce of the Rangnang Natural Foodstuff-processing Factory attracted the interest of housewives as it is sweet, savoury, uniquely aromatic and good for health and its users can prepare tasty dishes quickly and easily.

What caught the eyes of visitors were various distinctive agricultural products exhibited by each province. Among them, those of Kangwon Province were the most favoured by visitors.

The province displayed over 30 kinds of agricultural products like bracken, Codonopsis lanceolata, the roots of broad bellflower, walnut and wild honey. Its booth was always crowded with visitors during the show for the large variety and quantity of the exhibits.

Visitors were deeply interested in various women’s bags of the Pyolmuri bag production station for their more refined colours, lightness and good preservation of shape.

Other eye-catchers were powdered matrimony vine fruit, powdered dandelion roots, collagen skincare lotion, sponge cucumber skincare lotion and concentrated seabuckthorn fruit juice for children.