President Lee Sang-wook of the NACF(Photo:NACF)

The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) President Lee Sang-wook continues to make tours to check on the situation of its operations around the country.

On July 11, the holding company held a discussion with the people involved with the direct sale of farm produce, including the heads of local agricultural cooperatives, following the inspection of a number of places where they sell foodstuffs directly, such as Namwon City Cooperative Business Co., and Goksong Nonghyup K-Mellon Storage Facility, on subjects related to the development of a logistics system for farm produce at production sites around the country.

Nonghyup has decided to divide its agricultural produce logistics sector into all agriculture and the small and medium sectors under its two-track strategy to spur the professional aspects of its operation and at the same time increase farmers’ incomes and improve their living standards by selling their farm produce directly through the local foods direct transaction system.

The local foods direct sales stand opened for the first time at the Yongjin Nonghyup last year followed by the Gimpo Nonghyup and Wangju Nonghyup. Some 20 more such direct local foods sales stands are planned to open around the country this year.

NACF plans to open 100 such stands around the country by 2016 by providing 20 billion won in interest-free loans to operators and investors in the local food direct sales stands, along with other assistance including the publication of brochures and manuals on operation and education programs for those stands.

In the meantime, farm produce grown by farmhouses will be standardized and specified at 285 Nonghyup APCs where the quality of the farm produce will be selected and examined to improve their quality.

The jointly-selected farm produce at the APCs will be distributed to direct sales stands throughout the country when the farm produce logistics center is completed in Ansong, Gyeonggi Province, sometime next month. Around 100 billion won in interest-free loans will be provided for spurring the operation of APC as well as maintenance and repair.

Nonghyup is in the process of turning the city and county cooperative business units into a competitive joint operation corporation until the number of reaches 80 by 2020. Nonghyup plans to provide systematic support to cities that want to set up such corporations for the pre-screening of qualifications and prerequisites for setting up the farm produce sales corporation so that it will be fail-safe. Various laws and regulations will be touched up to spur the operation of those corporations as part of Nonghyup’s moves to safeguard their operations.

A total of 160 billion won will be invested in the joint operation corporations based on results of a study done by professional outside research organization so that they will be key players in the integrated marketing of farm produce in the country.

K-Mellon will be the first national joint brand diametrically linked from production to retail sales with the participation of 26 regional Nonghyups and 1,071 farmhouses. K-Mellon won the Bronze Medal in the horticulture farm produce section of the Farm Foods Power Brand Rally. Last year, its sales amounted to 12.1 billion won in large discount stores, exports, and food served at environmentally friendly classrooms around the country.

President Lee, in the meantime, said he will see that joint cooperative corporations will continue to be launched and the logistics installations made more effective to make logistics at production bases bigger and more professional in order to build a stable logistics base for farm produce.