Goheung Kim, Successful Entry into Japanese Export Market

Goheung County Fisheries Cooperative and Kinbaranoriten Export Agreement Success, More Than 10 Times Increase Compared to Last Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Jeonnam Goheung-gun (Governor Song Gwi-geun) announced on the 31st that it held a ‘Goheung Gim’ export loading event to Japan at the Goheung-gun Fisheries Cooperative seafood processing plant yesterday, attended by about 10 export-related personnel including the county, Goheung-gun Fisheries Cooperative, and Japanese buyer Kinbara Noriten (CEO Kinbara Mitsuru).

In April last year, the county signed a tripartite business agreement with Japan’s Kinbara Noriten and Goheung-gun Fisheries Cooperative for the export of Goheung Gim worth $6 million to Japan, opening the export path of Goheung Gim to the Japanese market.

Japanese gim exports, which amounted to only $130,000 in 2019, recorded an export value of $1.4 million last year after the agreement, increasing about 12 times, and this year it is expected to achieve an export value of $2.5 million.

According to the county, Goheung Gim has good elasticity and is suitable for gimbap, accounting for 70% of domestic gimbap production. It is analyzed that these characteristics are suitable for the Japanese market, where 1 billion sheets of gim are consumed annually, and exports are expected to continue to rise.

In addition, gim is said to have high added value, being called the black semiconductor, and is expected to greatly help increase the income of gim-producing fishermen.

Song Gwi-geun, Governor of Goheung-gun, said, “Along with agricultural products, the export of our county’s seafood, which has excellent quality and large production volume, is also important. Although seafood faces difficulties in exporting items and new markets due to storage issues, we will do our best to solve these problems and enable more seafood to be exported.”

Director Fujisawa of Kinbara Noriten said, “With the active support of Goheung-gun and Goheung-gun Fisheries Cooperative, we increased the proportion of Goheung Gim among our imported products from 5% to 60%. It is very popular among Japanese consumers, and we plan to import even more Goheung Gim next year.”

Lee Hong-jae, head of Goheung-gun Fisheries Cooperative, also expressed his ambition, saying, “We are very pleased that the volume of gim exports has greatly increased since the export agreement. Next year, we will advance the export period to export from early-harvest gim to meet the increasing demand, and we will do our best to produce high-quality gim.”

Meanwhile, a county official said, “Next year, following Goheung Gim, we are preparing an export agreement for seaweed and kelp to Japan. We plan to promote the agreement as soon as the COVID-19 situation calms down to help seaweed and kelp fishermen who are struggling with securing sales channels due to decreased consumption.”

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