Gangjin-gun Wins Grand Prize in Jeollanam-do Agricultural Policy Evaluation on Farmers' Day... Achieves 4 Consecutive Victories

Lee Seung-ok, the mayor of Gangjin County, received the 'Grand Prize' for excellence in agricultural administration evaluation from Governor Kim Young-rok. ⓒ Asia Economy

[Gangjin＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-su] Gangjin County in Jeollanam-do received the grand prize (1st place) in the 2021 Jeollanam-do Agricultural Administration Comprehensive Evaluation at the ‘26th Jeollanam-do Farmers' Day Commemoration Event’ held in Yeonggwang County on the 10th.

The ‘2021 Agricultural Administration Comprehensive Evaluation’ aims to boost morale through awards to cities and counties excelling in agricultural administration, and to promote creative agricultural administration initiatives such as management innovation for agricultural development and increased farm income. The evaluation covered a total of 39 items across 7 fields including agricultural policy, eco-friendly agriculture, food horticulture, agro-food distribution, livestock policy, animal quarantine, and common areas.

Gangjin County was recognized for its high achievements in key agricultural policies such as activating direct agricultural product transactions through building a customer database for agricultural specialty products, direct sales of fresh flowers amid the COVID-19 crisis, development and promotion of Gangjin aged kimchi and oat food products, and development of independent policies, achieving the honor of receiving the award.

Since the inauguration of County Governor Lee Seung-ok in the 7th local government in 2018, Gangjin has succeeded in winning awards for four consecutive years, including the grand prize in 2018 and the excellence award in 2019 and 2020, establishing its status as an advanced agricultural county.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the county established the nation’s first ‘Online Direct Sales System for Flower Complexes,’ selling a total of 897,907 stems of four types of flowers including roses, statice, hydrangeas, and peonies, generating sales of 1.8 billion KRW.

Furthermore, to overcome the disadvantage of long distances to major consumers of agricultural specialty products, the county focused on lifelong customer conversion through consumer direct sales using parcel delivery and systematic management of the customer database, achieving 27.2 billion KRW in 2021, pioneering a new market and leading stable sales channels, which earned the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Award at the 17th Local Autonomy Management Competition.

In addition, Gangjin County is realizing progressive agricultural administration by developing specialty products using representative local agricultural products such as processed oat food and aged kimchi, fostering the Gangjin Yeonbangjuk ecological circulation waterway agricultural system as a nationally important agricultural site, and designating it as a World Irrigation Facility Heritage.

Gangjin＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-su kys86120@asiae.co.kr

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