Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. (aT) President Kim Jae-soo. 

Dignitaries, including aT President Kim, attend the 2014 Korean Food Festival in New York.(Photos:aT)

The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corxp. (aT) played a big part in Korea’s exporting a record high $8.3 billion of agricultural produce and fisheries in 2014, overcoming a low yen and non-tariff barriers from importing countries.

Helping aT gain ground in efforts to help the nation’s exports was owed partly to aT’s entry into the Chinese online business-to-business (B2B) market with China’s biggest online commerce company, and aT’s hostings of exporting consultation meetings designed to give foreign buyers more access to Korean agricultural produce and foods. 

Last June, aT introduced a system to auction Korean-born cymbidium goeringii, which contributed to establishing fair trade order and boosting transactions. One of aT’s major tasks is to help Korean floriculturists explore markets.

With the relocation of its headquarters to Naju last June, aT is tasked with settling down there through wider exchanges with local communities in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do areas. To this end, aT is bolstering companywide social contribution activities. In 2014, the corporation provided support to help four multi-ethnic families in the Naju area visit their mother’s parents. aT also provided flowers, trees and seeds in six villages in the Gwangju-Jeollanam-do area.

aT is proactively implementing projects to bring benefits to local farming households. As part of efforts to strengthen a foundation for direct transactions of agricultural produce, aT opened local food direct transaction outlets as of 2014 and provided support to vehicles selling agricultural produce. 

A pilot program in which a mobile local food outlet was opened in the first floor lobby of the headquarters turned out to be a success, attracting roughly 300 visitors. aT plans to open such local food outlets on a regular basis after evaluating the outcomes of the pilot program.

aT sponsored overseas sales events designed to promote the marketing of pears produced from Naju on three occasion last year. The sales events that took place at Los Angeles and New York last November turned out to be a success, raking in $3.5 million in sales and increasing the number of Naju-produced pear outlets from 12 to 39.

In an effort to explore markets for exporting fresh agricultural produce such as paprikas and pears in the United States and China, aT plans to host special sales events on up to five occasions this year in cooperation with large-scale U.S. and Chinese vendors.

aT plans to augment its purchase of local agricultural produce. The corporation plans to purchase winter cabbage from the Gwangju-Jeollanam-do area, a production base of vegetables to stabilize prices. The purchased cabbage will be stockpiled for low-temperature storage houses in such areas as Muan, Hampyeong and Haenam. 

The corporation is redoubling efforts to nurture manpower from local communities. aT plans to raise the intern quota of students from such local universities as Sunchon National University and set the local manpower quota for hiring freshmen employees at 20 percent.