Ediya Coffee, which focuses mainly on small shops offering low-cost coffee, has been boosting its investment in research and development and coffee roasting technology in an effort to increase its competitiveness, the company said Monday. 

Amid the expanding Korean coffee market -- the world’s third-largest following US and China as of last year -- Ediya Coffee said it has increased R&D spending for its coffee and bakery products by 20 percent each year. 

As part of its efforts, the coffee chain has decided to roast coffee beans at its stores, instead of using coffee beans delivered by original equipment manufacturers. This has increased the quality of its coffee and made the price more reasonable for franchisees. 

Earlier this year, Ediya Coffee injected 350 million won ($295,285) to establish a coffee bean roastery that can produce up to 6,000 tons of coffee beans annually.

The roastery, called the Ediya Coffee Dream Factory, will be the company’s first coffee production facility since it was established in 2001. It will be built on 12,982 square meters of land in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. 

“When the construction of the Ediya Coffee Dream Factory is completed, our company will be able to mass-produce our quality products -- the outcome of our optimized coffee roaster technology and blending ratio,” said Ediya Coffee. 

Ediya Coffee established a coffee laboratory in 2010, in a first for a coffee franchise. It has since expanded the laboratory and reopened it in Nonhyeon-dong in Gangnam. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)