"Kang Sung-hyun's Win-Win Strategy Works" Lotte Mart Sees 60% Sales Increase in 'K-Varieties' This Year

Reducing Farmers' Burden of 'Foreign Royalty' Fees and Providing Consumers with Healthy Agricultural Products
Lotte Mart MD Discovers and Tests Unverified Domestic Seeds Nationwide to Persuade Farmers to Cultivate
Responsible Purchasing and Market Expansion... Successes Include Black Winner Watermelon and Jinyulmi Sweet Potato

Customers are looking at the domestic variety 'Black Winner Watermelon' at Lotte Mart.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Lotte Mart announced on the 27th that its 'K-Variety Project,' which discovers and showcases domestically bred agricultural products, is expected to achieve a sales increase of more than 60% compared to the previous year in its second year of operation. It explained that the synergy of Lotte Mart CEO Kang Sung-hyun's 'win-win drive,' local merchandisers (MDs) who actively sought out varieties and persuaded farmers, and consumers' discerning eyes recognizing good varieties contributed to this anticipated result.

The K-Variety Project was launched in March last year by Lotte Mart, marking the first domestic distributor to introduce a project managing Korean seed varieties. Lotte Mart has currently doubled the lineup of domestic variety agricultural products from about 100 at the start of the K-Variety Project. Sales from these products have increased to more than 15% of total agricultural sales. With sales expected to rise 60% year-on-year this year, the project is anticipated to meet its sales targets.

The project’s success is attributed to the high preference for domestic agricultural products among health-conscious consumers and the heavy burden on farmers due to foreign variety royalties. Additionally, CEO Kang’s directive to actively discover farmers who cultivate good agricultural products but lack sales channels played a significant role, according to the mart. Since September last year, Kang has regularly visited local farms to hear firsthand about the on-site conditions. To expand 'local food,' Lotte Mart increased the number of local merchandisers (MDs) from 10 to 19.

Local MDs traveled nationwide to find and discover unverified seeds, visiting farms during cultivation and harvest periods to inspect products directly. They also promised guaranteed purchases to encourage farmers to cultivate seeds with confirmed marketability. The representative product of Lotte Mart’s K-Variety Project, the 'Black Winner Watermelon,' was introduced to consumers through this process. Lotte Mart explained, "After test cultivation, we decided to commercialize the Black Winner Watermelon due to its excellent taste and marketability, and persuaded the Samnye Agricultural Cooperative in Wanju County so that all watermelon farmers there began cultivating Black Winner Watermelons."

As success stories increased, persuading production areas became easier. Lotte Mart convinced farmers to cultivate the early-maturing domestic sweet potato variety Jin-yul-mi, which matures earlier than other varieties during the off-season, and promised sales channels, resulting in sales of 800 million KRW. Since then, the number of farmers cultivating domestic sweet potato varieties during the off-season has increased.

While expanding the lineup of domestic variety products, Lotte Mart plans to collaborate with the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science through a business agreement to develop domestic seeds, secure sales channels, and promote new excellent varieties. They also intend to expand cooperation with seed companies and institutions to share distribution experience from the seed development stage to secure competitiveness in the market.

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