Pulmuone to Double Production of 'Ganghwado Uri Maeul Bean Sprouts' Supporting Self-Sufficiency for People with Developmental Disabilities

Father Lee Daesung, director of Ganghwado Woori Village (left), and Shin Sangjin, team leader of the Woori Village Bean Sprout Business Team (right), are holding the 'Pulmuone Domestic Soybean Pesticide-Free Bean Sprouts' product produced at the new bean sprout factory established as a smart factory.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Pulmuone announced on the 18th that it will significantly expand the sales volume of Ganghwado Uri Maeul bean sprouts to 900,000 bags next year, which is double the sales volume of this year, to help workers with developmental disabilities achieve self-sufficiency and independence.

The vocational rehabilitation facility for people with developmental disabilities, Ganghwado Uri Maeul, faced great difficulties when its bean sprout factory was completely destroyed by fire in October 2019, causing 50 workers to lose their jobs overnight. However, with support from Pulmuone and various sectors, a new bean sprout factory was rebuilt in December 2020.

As the largest bean sprout manufacturing and distribution company in Korea, Pulmuone has expanded the sales channels of Ganghwado Uri Maeul’s “Domestic Soybean Pesticide-Free Bean Sprouts” produced here, selling them nationwide in supermarkets and marts. Pulmuone is strengthening technical support to maintain the taste and quality of the bean sprouts at the highest level.

Ganghwado Uri Maeul bean sprouts provide stable jobs and income for people with developmental disabilities and help them prepare for life after retirement. The new bean sprout factory at Ganghwado Uri Maeul, rebuilt after the fire, began stable production in September, 10 months after reconstruction, and has now reached a level capable of self-sufficient production.

Since the new bean sprout factory was designed as a safe and hygienic “smart factory” that is easy for people with developmental disabilities to work in, the production capacity of bean sprouts has doubled compared to before the fire. The yield, an indicator of bean sprout quality (the probability that raw soybeans grow into normal bean sprouts), increased by about 70%, from 490% to 560%. Automation of the packaging process also increased packaging productivity from 500 bags per hour to about 1,600 bags, approximately 2.8 times more.

Accordingly, sales of Ganghwado Uri Maeul bean sprouts reached the target level, rising from about 50 million KRW in monthly sales in April, the early stage of factory reconstruction, to surpass 120 million KRW in August.

Pulmuone supported the new bean sprout factory at Uri Maeul by providing patented bean sprout cultivation technology and management systems to ensure more stable production than before the fire. The bean sprout cultivation technology introduced at Ganghwado Uri Maeul was patented last December.

Father Daesung Lee, director of Ganghwado Uri Maeul, said, “Pulmuone’s support for Uri Maeul cannot be understood merely as a corporate social responsibility project. When Uri Maeul lost everything in the fire, Pulmuone dispatched its specialized personnel to Ganghwado for over a year from design to completion of the entire reconstruction process, carefully overseeing it. This was not just a ‘contribution project’ but a ‘will’ and ‘belief’ to not ignore the pain of people with developmental disabilities and to accept it as their own pain, which was truly moving.”

Meanwhile, Pulmuone signed an MOU with Ganghwado Uri Maeul 10 years ago in 2011 and has been supporting eco-friendly bean sprout production, distribution, and sales by transferring Pulmuone’s 30 years of bean sprout cultivation know-how as part of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) activities for the local community. From 2012 until the fire, the domestic eco-friendly bean sprouts (300g) grown jointly by Pulmuone and Ganghwado Uri Maeul and sold in large marts reached 4.5 million bags (about 8.5 billion KRW).

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