People from all areas of the society have stepped up to help local farming and fishing villages through good consumption.

As private businesses took a dive and school term was delayed due to corona 19, farming and fishing villages are having a difficult time securing agro-fishery products sale route. They would like to sell their products off at a low price, but shipment costs are quite significant, and thus they lose money as they sell; they are unable to do anything. To take care of such problem for the farming and fishing villages, local governments and corporates began working on promoting agro-fishery products consumption. A governor took on the local specialty sales PR personally, drive-thru sales was implemented, and companies are consuming eco-friendly farm produce bundles; here’s news of our society seeking novel sale route with great ideas and good consumption.

Local governments are seeking out sale routes on their own.

Gangwon-do governor personally promotes potato sales through his SNS (source: Choi Moon-soon Gangwon-do governor’s Instagram).

When farm produce sales took on a hit, local governments started to seek out sale routes on their own. Gangwon-do made headlines when their governor personally took on the farm produce PR task. He continuously notifies people of ‘Gangwon Mart’ promotion events. When the Gangwon-do potato 10kg was on sale for 5,000 KRW, they all sold out immediately, and people called this ‘pocketing (Potato + Ticketing)’. The cheap price was one thing, but the governor personally promoting potato sales through his SNS and showing people how to remove potato sprout also contributed to the successful sale as people felt his sincerity to overcome such difficult time.

People who purchased the potatoes showed off various potato dishes on their SNS and made the farm produce consumption a trend. Contents like ‘Potato dish recipes for people who succeeded in 10kg pocketing’ were created, and many people enjoyed cooking up twister potato and potato pizza as a house lockdown challenge. Look up hashtags ‘#potatodishes, #potatodishrecipe’ on your SNS, and see how others have made use of their potatoes.

A great idea; drive-thru sales

Noryangjin Fish Market begins drive-thru sales (source: National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives YouTube).

We can’t leave out ‘drive-thru’ when we talk about promoting agro-fishery products consumption during social distancing. Drive-thru, which has been used in cafes and fast food restaurants, has now been implemented in agro-fishery products sales. The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives confirmed the potential of this implementation when they successfully operated a drive-thru store at the Noryangjin Fish Market. People were able to safely and conveniently purchase fresh sashimi sets as they could order, pay, and receive the food in their cars. From March 26th to April 12th, the 20-day operation resulted in 2,600 consumers visiting the market and making total sales of 124,000,000 KRW. The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries plans to expand cultured fishery products consumption by operating drive-thru stores in 6 regions around the country including Seoul, Sejong, Gwangju, Pohang, Hadong, etc. before it gets too hot.

Drive-thru is proving to be a great alternative for farm produce sales as well. Gwacheon Horse Racing Park has been holding the biggest farm produce direct transaction market in Korea, ‘Baro Market’, for 12 years now. This year, it has been closed since the end of February, but with the implementation of drive-thru, they opened their doors in 10 weeks. You could receive an order paper in the car which includes information of sales products, location of a tent, price, etc., for each farm. You then stop by a tent, hand over your order form and make the payment; and soon you will be able to receive your farm produce without getting off the car. Baro Market involves about 60 farms each week taking turns to sell fresh produce such as vegetables, fruit, flowers, side dishes, forest products, grain, and livestock products for a reasonable price. Until regular operation becomes an option, drive-thru sales will continue every Wednesday and Thursday from 10 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon.

Businesses that are helping farms with farm produce bundles

Hyundai WIA purchased farm produce bundles to help out Gyeongnam region farms.

According to the original schedule, farm produce that was to be supplied to schools for the beginning of March term has been discarded or sold at a giveaway price as school term has been delayed, causing many farms difficulty. 55% of the school lunch farm produce is eco-friendly farm produce, and as most of them are cultivated through contracts, it’s difficult for the farms to seek out sales route if such produce is not supplied to schools. To help out with the local society’s burden and fight through the difficult times, corporates have jumped in to consume farm produce of their respective regions.

Hyundai WIA, which has its headquarters in Gyeongnam Changwon National Industrial Complex, began helping out Gyeongnam region farms in April. Through Gyeongsangnam-do’s online shopping mall, eGyeongnam mall, they purchased about 100 million KRW worth of eco-friendly farm produce bundles. Farm produce bundles were filled with water parsley, pepper, bell pepper, garlic, potato, onions,…; fresh farm produce that the Gyeongnam region farmers cultivated. The 5,600 purchased farm produce bundles were given out to 2,500 Hyundai WIA employees and subcontractor employees as a gift to encourage their hard work in the hard times.

Hyundai WIA has been carrying out various social responsibility activities to become ‘a partner in creating a happier world’; activities that focus on ‘developing local society’ and ‘voluntary participation from the employees’. Hyundai WIA’s most well-known social responsibility activity is the ‘1% miracle’, which involves employees collecting 1% of their monthly salary to help out the under privileged people in the local society.

Help out farming and fishing villages with good consumption and get healthy as well (source: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs YouTube).

With the previous 2 months of social distancing, a number of affirmed cases went down greatly; the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced that we would be transiting to distancing in everyday lives from May 6th on. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, through promoting consumption for farm produce bundles, etc., they have acquired sale routes for about 1,545 tons out of expected damage supply of 1,600 tons. It’s all thanks to everyone who tried to overcome the difficulties of farming and fishing villages and salespeople together. We will need more time for the farming and fishing villages to regain their original vitality, but if we keep finding new ways and participate in good consumption as we do now, things could get back on track sooner than we think.