The Korea International Trade Association is hosting a two-day trade fair from Tuesday to help local companies form international partnerships with global buyers.

The 2022 Korea Grand Sourcing Fair, a hybrid event held both online and offline, is taking place at the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul with 211 buyers from 36 nations and around 750 Korean companies participating.

Held after the COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions were eased, this year’s lineup was the largest ever, according to the KITA.

With more than 75 percent of the buyers coming from Asian countries, Hong Kong’s health and beauty franchise Watson, Thailand’s supermarket chain Big C, Vietnamese retail chain Saigon Co-op and more visited Korea for the event.

Companies from the Middle East, South America and Europe also joined the event in search of Korean products and companies fit for their market. Companies based in United Arab Emirates also joined the event, including the home furnishing chain Home Centre, energy solution firm Empire One Group and engineering firm Aries Marine.

As part of the event, seminars and consulting sessions were held to help local companies understand the global trade scene and form international partnerships with overseas buyers.

"We will expand the size of the event next year to support the global marketing of local companies," Koo Ja-yeol, chairman of the KITA said. "We will focus on businesses and items with high potentials, competitive major target markets, to overcome the immediate export crisis."