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

President Kim Jae-soo of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. (aT) was reelected for one more year in office last year for the second time following his initial three-year term in recognition of his outstanding management results, making him the longest-serving public-entity CEO in the nation. 

aT President Kim, who said that the corporation has achieved much last year, stresses that this year the company will concentrate on five top core strategies. He expounded, “We’ll establish new exporting strategies suiting an era of door-opening, settle down a new logistics paradigm while striving to set up a long-term system to stabilize demand and supply, spearheading the so-called 6th Industrialization of the Agriculture, the government’s policy of converting a combination of agriculture and convergence technologies into future growth engines, and concentrating on promoting co-prosperity with the local community.

As this year marks the first year of the effectuation of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement, Kim said his corporation plans to establish new exporting strategies. In the past few years, aT has been accelerating efforts to tap the Chinese food exporting market. For instance, the corporation set up the Chingtao exporting center and Chendu aT Center, and opened a Korean pavilion on Alibaba, China’s largest online company. The effectuation of the Korea-China FTA is expected to accelerate market-opening and global competition. Even though it could deal a blow to the Korean agricultural sector, it is more important for the long-term success of the Korean agricultural industry for it to adapt and become more competitive. 

aT is redoubling efforts to explore new markets, including the Muslim Halal food market, and those in China and Southeast Asia. The corporation opened a branch in Abu Dhabi last year to begin exports to the Halal markets. Now is the time to establish new exporting strategies, based on the experience and expertise Korea has accumulated so far. 

The second core task that aT President Kim stresses in the new era of wide-open markets is the settlement of a new logistics paradigm. The daunting task that needs to be addressed urgently is addressing the high-cost, low-efficiency distribution structure of the Korean agricultural market. 

aT has made some achievements by providing information on agricultural produce prices via the Internet and mobile channels, supporting the expanding of local agricultural produce outlets and direct transactions, and reducing food ingredient costs through cyber transactions. There are still many tasks remaining. aT is implementing the so-called Smart Studio, a pilot program to experiment with a new distribution system. It is designed to usher in a new era of distribution for producers and consumers. 

Third, aT strives to set up a long-term system to stabilize supply and demand. Given the fact that the supply and demand of agricultural produce can be influenced by such numerous factors as climate change, crop harvest, the global economy, foreign currency fluctuations and crude prices, it’s not easy to predict a stable supply of such major agricultural produce as cabbage and onions, whose supply and demand disequilibrium have a great impact on the consumer price index. It is more important to work out responses in a flexible and pre-emptive fashion. The “price emergency response system,” put into practice last year, has contributed to lowering prices of producers and supporting their incomes. aT President Kim stresses the elevation of the efficiency of a stable, long-term supply-demand system, based on the operational experiences the corporation accumulated last year. 

President Kim attaches priority to implement the 6th Industrialization of the Agriculture to enhance added values of agricultural produce and the need for its connectivity with the food industry. The nation has focused on laying a foundation for the 6th “Industrialization of Agriculture.” The agriculture and food industries, ranging from production to exporting, logistics, customs clearance, food safety, design, packing and sales, have the potential to create many jobs, serving as a growth engine to drive the national economy.