Korean Wild Edible Plants Overcome COVID... Last Year's Fresh Jujube Export Value Jumps 74%

This Year’s Wild Forest Products Export Value Up 16.7%... Expected to Increase Further After the Main Harvest Season in Autumn
Forest Service Chief: "Full Effort to Expand Wild Forest Products Exports... Significant Effects on Income Increase and Job Creation for Forestry Workers"

SWOT Analysis of Korean Forest Products Exports. Provided by Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] This year’s export value of forest products increased by more than 10% compared to the previous year. This is attributed to the Korea Forest Service’s support for forestry households’ exports, which aimed to increase forestry workers’ income and revitalize the forest industry.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 8th, as of the end of July, this year’s export value of forest products was $254 million, showing a 16.7% increase compared to the previous year. This achievement is significant given the adverse domestic and international conditions such as COVID-19. Furthermore, as the main harvesting season for forest products in autumn progresses, the scale of exports is expected to expand even further this year.

In the major forest product export status, the Korea Forest Service highlights the expansion of jujube exports. Recently, production has increased due to advances in cultivation technologies such as rain shelters (a type of vinyl house), and with the spread of Hallyu culture and the enhanced image of Korean clean forest products, exports are expected to gradually expand.

In fact, last year’s export value of fresh jujubes was $101,000, an increase of $43,000 (74%) compared to 2019. Especially this year, jujube production is expected to increase significantly compared to last year, which brightens the export outlook, according to the Korea Forest Service.

Building on this momentum, the Korea Forest Service is focusing on strategically developing various processing technologies and processed products to export forest products such as jujubes produced in Korea, so that they can gain a competitive edge in the global market.

Through overseas information surveys, the Korea Forest Service gathers data on production, distribution, consumption, and import/export of overseas forest products and provides this information to export companies. Additionally, the export commercialization project manages all stages from forest products to actual export, which is a major framework for supporting forestry households.

Step-by-step support details of the 'Export Commercialization Project' promoted by the Korea Forest Service for forestry farms. Provided by the Korea Forest Service

The Korea Forest Service’s export commercialization project is divided into three stages: ▲ product development ▲ entry into overseas markets ▲ establishment in overseas markets. The goal is to discover high value-added new promising export items directly linked to forestry household income and to foster these promising export items through one-stop support from product development to market establishment.

Especially this year, considering the COVID-19 situation, non-face-to-face and online marketing have been strengthened. For example, the Korea Forest Service is focusing on expanding promotion and sales channels by utilizing media such as overseas e-commerce markets, YouTube, and live commerce to respond to the changed export environment, including the expansion of online purchases.

It is also aggressively engaging in SNS marketing centered on instant foods, meal replacement convenience foods, and processed products to target the rapidly growing small and instant markets in ASEAN through the development of convenient meal products and recipes.

Through this, the Korea Forest Service’s ultimate strategy is to simultaneously increase the export volume of Korean forest products and the income of forestry households.

Choi Byung-am, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “Expanding forest product exports greatly contributes to increasing forestry workers’ income, fostering related industries, and creating jobs. To maximize these effects, the Korea Forest Service is focusing on supporting forestry households’ forest product exports.”

He added, “Going forward, the Korea Forest Service plans to strengthen support necessary for revitalizing forest product exports by expanding export-specialized facilities for key regional forest products and intensively fostering export councils by item to ensure stable export expansion.”

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