Jogyuil Jinju Mayor Meets Song Miryung, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, to Discuss Current Projects

Attracting the 'Natural Material Full-Cycle Standardization Hub'

Expansion of Dry Storage Facilities at the Grain Processing Complex

Jo Gyu-il, mayor of Jinju City, Gyeongnam Province, announced on the 25th that he met with Song Mi-ryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, at the Government Sejong Complex to propose key agricultural projects such as attracting the ‘Natural Material Full-Cycle Standardization Hub’ and expanding the drying and storage facilities at the rice comprehensive processing plant.

Since 2022, Gyeongsangnam-do and Jinju City have been promoting the establishment of a Western Gyeongnam anti-aging bio cluster centered around Jinju City. Last year, they succeeded in attracting the ‘Green Bio Venture Campus Creation Project’ hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, laying the groundwork to develop global competitiveness in the green bio industry and foster it as the next-generation future food industry in the Gyeongnam region.

Gyeongnam Province and Jinju City, which have designated the natural material industry?a high-growth future industry group?as a specialized development field, are making every effort to attract the ‘Natural Material Full-Cycle Standardization Hub’ hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for full-scale promotion.

Joo Kyu-il, Mayor of Jinju City, is meeting with Song Mi-ryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, to propose current projects in the agricultural and forestry sectors.

The green bio industry is a future growth industry that applies biotechnology to agricultural biological resources, enabling improvements in agricultural productivity and the development of new materials, thereby creating high added value in agriculture and related upstream and downstream industries.

The ‘Natural Material Full-Cycle Standardization Hub’ is a facility that standardizes and integrates support from cultivation to washing, drying, analysis, verification, and manufacturing processes for materials extracted from natural substances such as plants and animals, to be used in cosmetics, health functional foods, pharmaceuticals, and more. It is expected to play a role in promoting the mutual development of farmers and bio companies.

The western region of Gyeongnam has an excellent agricultural production base that supplies green bio materials, and related institutions such as the Jinju Bio Industry Promotion Agency, Gyeongnam Anti-Aging Research Institute, Gyeongnam Medicinal Crop Industrialization Support Center, and Gyeongsang National University are concentrated around Jinju City. Additionally, a one-stop integrated support system for companies based on natural material green bio has been established, and clusters and ecosystems for each stage such as startup and growth are in place, making it an optimal location for a natural material green bio industry hub.

Meanwhile, the expansion of drying and storage facilities at the rice comprehensive processing plant located in Sabong-myeon, Jinju City, was also discussed. This plan aims to increase the capacity and space of the drying and storage facilities by 1.5 times the current size to handle the concentrated purchase volume during the autumn rice harvest season, drastically reducing farmers’ waiting times and the stockpiling of raw rice. Jinju City requested 2.1 billion KRW in national funding out of the total project cost of 5.3 billion KRW.

On this day, Mayor Jo said, “The future growth engine of Gyeongnam will be the green bio industry where agriculture and businesses develop together. I hope the project to establish the Natural Material Full-Cycle Standardization Hub will be selected to realize a world-class ‘Green Bio City.’” He also requested support for expanding the drying and storage facilities at the rice comprehensive processing plant to ensure smooth distribution of high-quality rice.

In response, Minister Song Mi-ryeong said, “We fully recognize Jinju City’s efforts,” and added, “We will actively review the development of Gyeongnam’s green bio industry and the enhancement of agricultural competitiveness, and continue to cooperate organically with Jinju City in the future.”

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