Naju-si Hosts 'Agriculture Festa and National Cooking Contest'

Naju City in Jeollanam-do will hold the ‘Bae Teojineun Naju Agriculture Festa,’ an integrated festival and event related to agriculture, from the 20th to the 29th at the Yeongsangang Riverside Sports Park area.

According to the city on the 16th, the Naju Agriculture Festa was planned by integrating agricultural event programs to celebrate and promote harmony among local farmers during the harvest season.

Bursting Naju Agriculture Festa and Yeongsangang National Cooking Contest Poster.
[Photo by Naju City]

Various agricultural and livestock products and processed goods, including Naju pears, rice, grains, and Korean beef, will be exhibited and promoted. In particular, discount sales booths will be operated in diverse ways so that tourists and consumers can taste and purchase high-quality products at reasonable prices.

On the day, free delivery support will be provided to excellent customers purchasing agricultural and livestock products, and 10% of the purchase amount of agricultural specialties will be given as agricultural product purchase coupons.

The tasting corner, where visitors can enjoy the new pear varieties Sinhwa and Changjo as well as the popularly loved Singo pear to their heart’s content, will also attract attention.

At the e-commerce booth, a ‘Win-Win Food Live Commerce Online Promotion’ will be held twice daily from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., introducing the excellent taste and quality of agricultural specialties from 21 companies, including Naju pears, Korean beef, fermented skate, and sesame oil.

Additionally, various booths and events presenting the future and value of Naju agriculture will be operated, including the Naju Agriculture Exhibition Hall, promotional booths for returning farmers and villagers, young farmers and learning groups, chrysanthemum bonsai school and Honam Horticultural High School’s chrysanthemum and wildflower exhibition and sales booths, and the Naju Pear Cooperative’s pear appraisal contest.

The Agricultural Day commemorative ceremony will be held on the 23rd, and the Farmers’ Learning Group Unity Festival will take place on the 25th at the main festival stage.

Various enjoyable experiences to explore agricultural culture will also be provided, such as urban agriculture garden plots, recycling seedling planting of lettuce and cabbage, experience programs at seven rural experience and recreation villages, rice cake pounding, traditional games, and rice and bean threshing experiences.

The city will hold the ‘2023 Yeongsangang National Cooking Contest’ starting at 10 a.m. on the 28th.

This cooking contest is the first attempt linked with this integrated festival to discover new dishes that contain Naju’s unique stories, colors, and flavors, aiming to revitalize food tourism harmonizing taste and style.

Under the theme ‘Please Take Care of Naju’s Taste,’ 20 teams that pass the first document screening will compete in the finals to showcase their culinary skills.

Participating teams will prepare single-item menus priced around 15,000 KRW using ‘bae’ (pear), a representative specialty of Naju, on the spot.

In particular, on the day of the contest, a full table setting with 3 to 5 side dishes and desserts using mystery ingredients provided will be presented.

The contest judging will evaluate hygiene and cooking process, theme suitability and completeness, taste and nutritional value, creativity, and dissemination value.

The prestigious grand prize (1 team) will receive 2 million KRW, the excellence award (2 teams) 1 million KRW each, the merit award (2 teams) 700,000 KRW each, the encouragement award (4 teams) 500,000 KRW each, and the participation award (11 teams) 300,000 KRW each.

The city plans to provide recipes of the winning dishes through professional consulting to local restaurants and aspiring entrepreneurs, commercialize them, and promote food tourism and consumption of local agricultural specialties.

Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said, “Through the Naju Agriculture Festa, we will present a new future and value for Naju agriculture, promote and market Naju’s top-quality agricultural products nationwide, turning it into an opportunity for farmers to generate income and a festival that tourists want to revisit.”

He added, “I hope the National Cooking Contest held at Yeongsangang will promote the taste and charm of Naju, the number one place for Namdo cuisine, and serve as a catalyst for revitalizing food tourism by discovering foods with stories.”

Naju = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Yukbong baekok@asiae.co.kr

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