In April Juche 98 (2009) General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited the Samilpho Specialties Factory. He highly appreciated it for producing various kinds of quality foodstuffs totally based on raw materials available in the country and kindled the torch for a fresh upsurge in foodstuff industry.

He also gave field guidance to the well-equipped Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory and other light industry factories to instruct that each factory should be built on the highest level to meet the requirements of the new century and in a profitable way so that the people could really enjoy benefits from it.

When making the rounds of the Sokjong Factory of Soy-sauced Sliced Vegetables which produces in an industrial way various sorts of sliced vegetables preserved in soy sauce, traditional dishes of the Korean people, he noted that every province should build such factories as many as possible to be a help to the improvement of the people's living standard.

During the 150-day and 100-day campaigns the construction of combined foodstuff processing bases went on apace, with the result that some factories including the Paekunsan Combined Foodstuff Factory have already come into being and others are near completion in provinces.

The bases, whose production processes and environment are suitable to the requirements of the IT age, produce tasty and nutritious foodstuffs with raw materials indigenous to their locations and with farm and marine products to supply them to the people.

Meanwhile steady efforts have been directed to putting the production processes on an updated and scientific basis at many foodstuff factories.