Global grain prices are on the rise, and concern over the agricultural export industry is mounting as stable food supply becomes ever more essential.
“K-agriculture,” exporting Korean-grown agricultural produce as well as agriculture technologies, is racking up achievements. Fresh agricultural produce and foods, such as strawberries and grapes, and conventional items such as kimchi, bean paste and ginseng, enjoy popularity, contributing to posting the nation’s record exports.
Agriculture technologies such as Korean-type greenhouse/livestock smart farms, agricultural machinery and varieties have gained a good reception on foreign markets.
Korea, a nation of grain aid a generation ago, has now grown into an aid donor. The nation has reestablishing the standing of K-agriculture anew by donating aid of 50,000 tons of rice: three months’ staple grain for 3 million people.
Figures, released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), showed that the nation saw agricultural produce and f food exports surge to $6.2 billion in the first nine months of this year, the most-ever one. The figure represents a 12.1 percent jump over the same period of last year.
It is noteworthy that the agricultural food export industry faced a crisis with uncertainties, such as the disruption of supply chains and sluggish crops, caused by climate change and insufficient logistics, but it had yielded good outcomes with the expanding of export items tailored to meet local needs, diverse sales marketing activities and differentiation strategies to make a difference with other countries.
K-agriculture refers to tangible and intangible achievements Korean agricultural produce and food exports as well as agriculture technologies have made abroad.
K-agriculture is a kind of hallyu (Korean Wave) in the agricultural produce and food sector. The growth of strawberries among the items in the agricultural food sector is outstanding.
Strawberry exports surged to $49.1 million in the first 10 months, a 24.5 percent jump over the same period of last year.
The nation’s homegrown representative strawberry varieties such as “Maehyang” have been developed and they have been recognized of their quality by consumes in areas such as Southeast Asia, replacing Japanese counterparts.
Rural Development Administration (RDA) said due to the burden on the royalties of Japanese strawberries, Maehyang, a variety with excellent quality in terms of sugar content, solidity and durability, was developed in a testing farm in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do, and it has become one of the mainstay export varieties to expand exports to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
In particular, strawberries, which have a domestic production foundation but a lower portion of Korea’s exports, have been designated as “star items”, along with grapes, since 20 years ago. Tasks to analyze and fix stumbling blocks to expand exports have been implemented, RDA said.
“Sulhyang,” being grown by about 85 percent of strawberry farming households, “Geumsil,” “King’s Berry” and “Alta King” have been highlighted as export items to replace Maehyang, according to RDA.
Strawberry exports to Singapore stood at $12.29 million in January-October, a 16.4 percent over a year before. Homegrown strawberries enjoyed popularity among youth in Vietnam in which exports surged 24 percent to about $5 million.
During the same period, grapes, ginseng items and kimchi products jumped 23.9 percent, 17.6 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively, to become the representative fresh food products of K-agriculture.
On top of conventional hit products of the processed food sector, processed rice items fared well. Processed rice items, beverages, ramyun and bean paste products increased 18.5 percent, 17.3 percent, 7.5 percent and 4 percent, respectively, during the same period.
As demand on healthy foods and home meal replacements on the rise in the wake of the spread of the pandemic, popularity toward Korean cuisine has gained ground and pitching it via SNS video flatforms go viral to lead booming exports.
The expanding of Korean agricultural food booths on large-sized online shopping malls have yielded outcomes. Korean-style smart farms have been highlighted as one of the nation’s representative agriculture technologies.
Kim Jae-hyung, director in charge of Trade Rromotion of Food Industry Policy Bureau at MAFRA, said K-agriculture, Korea’s homegrown agriculture technologies and agricultural food products, has yield tangible and intangible achievements on the global market. The nation saw agriculture and food exports make the most-ever achievement this year.
Fresh agricultural produce exports top $10 billion in the first nine months of the year for first time thanks to the fostering of hit items such as strawberries and grapes and efforts to solve logistics glitches.
Kimchi export markets have been diversified to Japan, the United States and Europe to rising concern over health and pitching for its values as functional food and recipes.
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