Annual Sales of Social Economy Enterprises in the Forestry Sector Increase by 25% Compared to the Previous Year

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The annual sales of social economy enterprises in the forestry sector increased by 25% compared to the previous year.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 14th, social economy enterprises in the forestry sector operate as social enterprises, preliminary social enterprises, and social cooperatives.

This year, the annual sales scale of social economy enterprises is 66.6 billion KRW. This is an increase of 13.4 billion KRW compared to the previous year, and the annual sales of social economy enterprises in the forestry sector have steadily grown over the past five years: 30.1 billion KRW in 2018, 51.8 billion KRW in 2019, 52.6 billion KRW in 2020, and 53.2 billion KRW in 2021.

The increase in annual sales of social economy enterprises in the forestry sector also leads to the revitalization of the forest village economy. For the same reason, the Korea Forest Service has discovered and supported social economy enterprises since 2012, increasing the number of social economy enterprises to a total of 287 as of this year.

By year, the number of social economy enterprises in the forestry sector increased to 120 in 2018, 173 in 2019, 239 in 2020, and 280 in 2021, according to the Korea Forest Service’s statistics.

The Korea Forest Service has supported social economy enterprises in the forestry sector through a three-stage process of ‘discovery-growth-ecosystem creation’ aimed at revitalizing the forest village economy.

In the discovery stage, initiatives such as the ‘Forestry Sector Youth Social Issues Research Group’ and ‘Fostering Social Economy Entrepreneurs in the Forestry Sector’ were promoted to attract public interest. New business models were discovered through the ‘Regional Win-Win Forestry Specialized Social Economy Model Advancement,’ and the public nature of forest resources was strengthened by converting the National Forest Management Team into social economy enterprises.

In the growth support stage, integrated consulting and market support projects for social economy enterprises in the forestry sector were promoted, focusing on solving issues in management sites and supporting the establishment of practical market strategies from behind the scenes, thereby enhancing the enterprises’ self-sustainability.

The ecosystem creation stage focused on collaboration projects and social contribution activities among private companies (SK Forestry), public institutions (Korea Forest Welfare Institute, Korea Arboretum and Garden Management Institute, etc.), and social economy enterprises, concentrating efforts to create synergy effects among related companies and institutions.

Shim Sang-taek, Director of the Forest Industry Policy Bureau at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Social economy in the forestry sector shares the same path as revitalizing the forest village economy in the sense that it utilizes local forests, consumes forest products, and lives together with local residents.” He added, “The Korea Forest Service will continue to foster and support social economy enterprises in the forestry sector to efficiently maintain and manage forest resources and to achieve both goals of revitalizing the forest village economy.”

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