Gangdong-gu Singsing Dream Selected as 'Excellent Local Food Direct Store'

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Selects '2019 Excellent Agricultural Products Direct Trade Sites'... Safe Food for Residents, Stable Market for Eco-Friendly Farms... Win-Win Success Key to Popularity

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] ‘Singsing Dream,’ an eco-friendly local food direct store operated by Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon), has been selected as an ‘Excellent Agricultural Products Direct Transaction Site of 2019’ certified by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The ‘Excellent Agricultural Products Direct Transaction Site Certification System’ was introduced in 2017 to promote the expansion of direct transactions of agricultural products. It evaluates 20 items including the proportion of direct transaction agricultural products, labeling of producers on products, agricultural product safety management, producer management, and evaluation of auxiliary facilities. Certified sites receive support for promotion, education, overseas training opportunities, and budgets necessary for communication activities with consumers.

‘Singsing Dream’ received uniformly high evaluations in all categories and was selected as an excellent agricultural products direct store this time.

Since opening in 2013, Singsing Dream has had a cumulative user count exceeding 327,000 and cumulative sales exceeding 2.2 billion KRW as of last year. It systematically supplies healthy and safe food to consumers and opens stable sales channels for eco-friendly farms, increasing its popularity day by day.

At Singsing Dream, agricultural products produced by farms are loaded every morning and undergo residual pesticide inspection, portioning, and packaging before 12 noon, then displayed and sold in the store. It takes only three hours for agricultural products harvested that morning to be served on the lunch table. Because it directly connects producers and consumers without complicated intermediate distribution stages, the products are organic yet affordable, and producer photos and information are displayed on each agricultural product to enhance trust. Agricultural products not sold by the next morning are either sold at a discount or donated to food markets to practice neighborly love.

Efforts to diversify product items and promote urban-rural coexistence continue. Following agricultural products from nearby areas such as Yangpyeong-gun and Icheon-si, about 30 types of agricultural products and processed foods from Wanju-gun, Jeonbuk, have been added to the sales items starting this month.

Additionally, unmanned vending machines have been installed and operated at five locations including the district office and Sangil-dong Community Center so that residents can access local food more easily. Eco-friendly certified agricultural products are supplied as meal ingredients to about 200 places including elementary, middle, and high schools, daycare centers, and local children’s centers inside and outside the region.

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, said, “We will strive to activate ‘Gangdong-type local food’ suitable for our district’s situation to provide sustainable and safe food to our residents.”

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