Byun Dong-shik, head of the CSV Corps at CJ Cultural Foundation, speaks at a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the foundation.

CJ Group has a management tenet: Contributing to society through products and services. CJ Jeiljedang, the flagship company of the group, was established by contributing to the nation through businesses. The management tenet has evolved into creating shared value (CSV), a management philosophy CJ Jeiljedang now pursues. 

True to its management strategy, CJ Jeiljedang devotes itself to translating into action such diverse co-existence activities with the agriculture industry, which is closely related with the food manufacturing industry, the fishing industry/SME, and local communities. 

In particular, CJ Jeiljedang is making all-out efforts to pursue shared growth to help the agriculture industry, a base of the food manufacturing industry, ramp up competitiveness. The company has so far maintained cooperative relations with farming households by developing and spreading seeds, guiding cultivation technologies and methods, and signing contracts for a stable supply of agricultural produce. 

CJ Jeiljedang inaugurated CJ Breeding, an incorporated body designed to specialize in research development to strengthen the competitiveness of the agriculture and fishery industries last March. CJ Breeding specializes in the research of developing excellent, value-added homegrown seeds of such agriculture produce and fisheries as rice, beans, red peppers, cabbage and sesame. 

CJ Jeiljedang plans to evolve CJ Breeding into a breed incorporated body in which farming households and farmers’ organizations have stakes within three years by expanding the farming area with newly developed seeds, with the goal of securing seven new seed variaties. 

The company plans to aggressively commercialize new seeds. It has commercialized “Haetban Big Bud Rice,” a rice variety with its embryo bud thrice that of the conventional one, developed through industry and academic collaboration, into a new product. The company is in the final stage of a project to commercialize “CJ Happiness Bean No. 1,” an advanced bean for cultivating bean sprouts, which has been modified for mechanized farming.

CJ group officials attend a ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of CJ Cultural Foundation. (Photos:CJ Group)

CJ Cultural Foundation Marks 10th Anniversary

CJ Ajeet Gwangheungchang made its debut in 2006 to give a helping hand to young artists, with money donated by CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun.

Chairman Lee has considered CJ Ajeet Gwangheungchang as one of his group’s subsidiaries, so it has become part of a course for orientating new CJ Group employees at the behest of Chairman Lee.

CJ opened a second CJ Ajeet at Daehangno in downtown Seoul, a center of plays and musicals, on April 22. 

In an opening speech, CJ Vice Chairman Lee Chae-wook said, “The CJ Cultural Center will offer the ground to help cultural talents cultivate their capacity through investments and support, as CJ Group has entered and created the cultural industry, a wasteland, 20 years ago.”

Originally, CJ planned to hold an extravaganza event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding of CJ Cultural Foundation, but it was scaled down because of the management vacuum caused by Chairman Lee’s absence.

CJ Cheiljedang’s cooked white rice “haetban.”