[Opinion] Our Agricultural Products, to the Tables of the World

Kwon Taek-yoon, Director of Technology Cooperation Bureau, Rural Development Administration

The export scale of semiconductors, a representative export item of our country, is about 100 billion dollars (approximately 127.7 trillion won). This is similar to the export scale of agricultural products from the Netherlands, an advanced agricultural export country. Dutch agricultural products are like semiconductors, which are concentrated with advanced technology. How can we expand agricultural product exports like the Netherlands, which leads the global agricultural market, and put our products on the tables of people around the world?

We need aggressive export agriculture that moves beyond stabilizing domestic agricultural product prices and turns the open global market into an opportunity. Our country's agricultural technology is recognized as being among the top five in the world. The technical level of farmers producing agricultural products is also very high. Now is the time to add scientific technology and technical support from agricultural science and technology institutions that meticulously support production-distribution-sales necessary for agricultural product exports.

First, while commercializing various developed varieties for export, we need to discover markets that match their characteristics and preferences. For the Chinese market, which prefers red, exporting new products like the red grape variety ‘Hongju Seedless’ can increase the chances of success. The same applies to strawberries, the national representative agricultural product. New varieties with diverse flavors and excellent distribution characteristics are being developed, and cultivation areas are expanding. The easing of quarantine barriers is also expanding export market openings. If we commercialize new varieties with high sugar content and firmness for export, we can win the hearts of buyers and overseas consumers with our strawberries.

Additionally, productization technology that enhances the brand value of our agricultural products in overseas markets is necessary. Even for representative export agricultural products like strawberries and grapes, they are often exported at prices lower than Japanese products. Foreign agricultural products are perceived as premium compared to ours. To overcome this, we need to support quality enhancement technologies and strategic marketing so that quality competitiveness translates into price competitiveness. We should target premium export markets such as overseas high-end stores and restaurants and complement technologies for productization from production stages to export.

Moreover, securing safety is paramount in agricultural product exports. Overseas consumers’ demands for safety are continuously increasing. If safety standards required by export destination countries are not met, exports are often impossible. Various support such as technology development and education for export farmers is needed to produce agricultural products that meet global safety standards.

Along with this, developing freshness preservation technologies that maintain product quality while delivering high-quality agricultural products to overseas consumers is also important. The fact that pears and grapes can be exported until the next year is thanks to freshness preservation technology. However, most agricultural products have strict freshness preservation conditions, making it difficult to maintain freshness. The environmentally controlled atmosphere (CA) container ship export currently being developed could be an alternative. CA technology artificially controls the atmosphere inside containers to maintain freshness for a long time. It is expected to dramatically improve freshness preservation levels in ship exports while reducing costs compared to air exports.

Just as exports are the driving force of our country's economic growth, the same applies to agriculture. To turn the crisis of market opening into an opportunity for a leap forward, we must look beyond the domestic market to overseas markets on the global stage. The government has set a national agenda goal of achieving 15 billion dollars in agricultural and food exports by 2027. It is entirely possible if we complete the dignity of our agricultural products with technology that ensures the best quality, the freshest freshness, and the highest safety. I envision a happy picture where our agricultural products take center stage on the tables of people worldwide.

Kwon Taek-yoon, Director of Technology Cooperation Bureau, Rural Development Administration

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