Kang Ho-dong, New President of NongHyup Central Association, "Innovating Central Association for Farmers"

62% of Valid Votes
Promotion of Central Association and Economic Holding Company Integration

Kang Ho-dong, the head of Yulgok Nonghyup in Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongnam, was elected as the 25th president of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NongHyup) on the 25th. President-elect Kang will lead the federation for four years starting this March.

The NongHyup announced that in the election held at the NongHyup Central Federation auditorium in Jung-gu, Seoul, Kang received 781 votes (62.7%) out of 1,245 valid votes, securing his victory. Since Kang did not surpass the majority with 607 votes (48.8%) in the first round, a runoff election was held against the second-place candidate, Jo Deok-hyun, to decide the winner.

After the runoff results were announced, President-elect Kang said, "The overwhelming support sent to me means to innovate and transform NongHyup, and to reform the federation to serve as a central organization for cooperative heads and farmers." He added, "I promise to fulfill the 100 pledges I previously mentioned, communicate with cooperative heads, and work together to create a federation where regional Nonghyups are the owners."

Kang Ho-dong, the candidate elected as the 25th President of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, is greeting at the extraordinary general meeting held on the 25th at the main auditorium of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Kang joined Yulgok Nonghyup in 1987 through an open recruitment for regional Nonghyups and has worked in agriculture and rural sectors for about 37 years. From 2016 to 2020, he served as a director of the NongHyup Central Federation, and has held positions as a director of NongHyup Economic Holdings, a director of the Mutual Finance sub-board, and a director of the Farmers Newspaper. He has served five terms as the head of Yulgok Nonghyup. In the 2020 election for the 24th president, he ran but finished third in the first round.

President-elect Kang proposed the slogan "A New Republic of Korea NongHyup" and promised to integrate the Central Federation with Economic Holdings, which owns Hanaro Distribution, NongHyup Red Ginseng, Namhae Chemical, and others. This aims to improve work efficiency. Reforming the governance structure of the Central Federation requires amendments to the NongHyup Act. Since 2012, NongHyup has been structured into the Central Federation, Economic Holdings, and Financial Holdings, but integration is being pursued again after 12 years.

Additionally, Kang pledged to strengthen the compensation, status, and rights of cooperative heads, revitalize economic projects to foster competitive regional agricultural cooperatives, achieve early independence of mutual finance to generate profits (with an additional special account settlement of 1 trillion won), eliminate the financial burden on agricultural cooperatives when receiving funds from the Central Federation, expand cooperative share participation in affiliates, and transfer competitive businesses to agricultural cooperatives.

Regional integration is also a challenge for President-elect Kang. This election, held by direct vote for the first time in 17 years since 2007, saw support bases formed around regions with many cooperative heads holding voting rights. Until just before the election, the contest was mainly among three strong candidates from Gyeongnam (Kang), Busan (Song Young-jo), and Chungnam (Jo). With Kang, a native of Gyeongnam and Yulgok Nonghyup, winning, the NongHyup Central Federation will have a president from Gyeongnam for the first time in 20 years since the 20th election in 2004.

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