Agricultural Corporations and Workers in 2019 Increase by Over 7% from Previous Year... 29,000 New Hires

Temporary Worker Hiring Rate at Maximum... 86% of Workers Are Aged 40 and Above

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The number of agricultural corporations and workers increased by about 7% compared to the previous year in 2019.

The majority of workers were aged 40 and above, and nearly 30,000 new hires were made, but the largest proportion were daily workers.

On the 26th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced the results of the "Agricultural Corporation Statistical Survey," which includes the production structure and management performance of agricultural corporations as of the end of 2019.

As of 2019, the number of operating agricultural corporations was 23,315, an increase of 7.0% from the previous year.

Among agricultural corporations, there were 10,230 farming cooperative corporations and 13,085 agricultural company corporations.

A farming cooperative corporation is a corporation established by five or more farmers (or agricultural producer groups) to enhance productivity through collaborative agricultural management and jointly handle the shipment, distribution, processing, and export of agricultural products. An agricultural company corporation is a corporation established by farmers (or agricultural producer groups) to conduct agricultural management or the distribution, processing, and sale of agricultural products as a business or to act on behalf of farmers in agricultural work.

Since 2015, the number of farming cooperative corporations has remained around 100,000 to 110,000, while agricultural company corporations have shown a steady increase.

At the end of 2019, the number of workers in agricultural corporations was 160,000, an increase of 7.4% from the previous year.

By type of employment, full-time investors (investors who worked continuously for more than one year for the corporation's regular business activities) numbered 48,000, and employed workers included 65,000 regular workers and 48,000 temporary and daily workers.

By age group, workers in their 50s accounted for the largest share at 35.9%, followed by those in their 60s at 27.6%, and those in their 40s at 22.1%.

The proportion of regular workers was 86.6% in corporations with 10 to 49 workers, 84.4% in corporations with 50 or more workers, and only 35.1% in corporations with one or fewer workers.

The number of workers per corporation was 5.2 for corporations operating for 3 years or less, 6.8 for 4 to 7 years, 7.3 for 8 to 12 years, and 10.2 for more than 12 years, showing that longer operation periods corresponded to more workers.

By employment sector, agricultural production (simple labor) accounted for the largest share at 44.6%, followed by agricultural production (production management) at 18.8%, and marketing, agricultural product sales, and logistics at 13.7%.

In 2019, agricultural corporations newly hired 29,000 workers.

By type of worker, 21,000 were daily workers, 6,000 were regular workers, and 2,000 were temporary workers.

The business type with the highest proportion of corporations with 5 or more workers was livestock farming (44.4%), and the lowest was rural tourism and recreation business (25.8%).

The proportion of corporations operating for 3 years or less was highest in agricultural and livestock product distribution (34.7%) and lowest in rural tourism and recreation business (24.7%).

In 2019, the investment performance in facilities and equipment by agricultural corporations was 1.0285 trillion KRW, a 4.9% decrease from the previous year. However, investment per corporation was 340 million KRW, an increase of 4.6% from the previous year.

The total sales of agricultural corporations amounted to 40.093 trillion KRW, a 7.0% increase compared to the previous year. Sales per corporation were 1.72 billion KRW.

For agricultural corporations (settled corporations), assets per corporation were 1.64 billion KRW, liabilities were 1.06 billion KRW, capital was 580 million KRW, and the debt-to-capital ratio was 182.6%.

The results of this survey will be used as basic data for establishing policies related to agricultural corporations.

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