Sejong Local Food Achieves 80 Billion KRW in Sales Four Years After Opening

[Asia Economy (Sejong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The local food direct store in Sejong, ‘Singsing Jangteo,’ has achieved cumulative sales of 80 billion KRW four years and four months after the opening of its first branch.

According to Sejong City on the 14th, Singsing Jangteo opened its first branch in Dodam-dong in September 2015 and its second branch in Areum-dong in January 2018, aiming to revitalize the local agricultural product market and promote mutual development between the new and old downtown areas.

In particular, Singsing Jangteo is recognized as a nationwide success case by operating various programs that involve both producers and consumers beyond direct transactions of local agricultural products.

The number of participating farms in Singsing Jangteo increased from 218 farms at the launch of the first branch in 2015 to 954 farms as of January this year, and the number of consumer members grew from 6,168 to 43,482 during the same period.

The increase in participating farms and consumer members has driven the sharp rise in Singsing Jangteo’s cumulative sales. The actual annual cumulative sales rapidly increased from 2.121 billion KRW in 2015, 12.594 billion KRW in 2016, 27.957 billion KRW in 2017, 51.822 billion KRW in 2018, to 79.137 billion KRW in 2019.

Among them, the Singsing Jangteo Dodam branch achieved a total sales of 17.1 billion KRW last year, marking the highest sales among about 460 direct stores nationwide as a single store.

The city expects that as the profit structure of Sejong-type local food stabilizes centered on Singsing Jangteo, the participation of young successor farmers and young start-up farmers will increase, playing a new breakthrough role in local agriculture.

Lee Chun-hee, Mayor of Sejong City, said, “The Sejong-type local food movement centered on Singsing Jangteo contributes to creating a mutually prosperous local community by facilitating exchange and building trust between the new city and the old downtown, beyond simple consumption of local agricultural products. The city will continue to strive to contribute to urban-rural coexistence through various programs.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.