‘K-Sanbuljiyeonje’ Performance Verified Abroad This Year in Cambodia and Others

Overseas demonstration of domestically produced wildfire retardants is being promoted. The overseas demonstration is expected to be the first step in verifying the performance of domestically produced wildfire retardants and opening up new markets.

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 24th that the domestically developed "wildfire retardant and solid extinguishing agent (hereinafter wildfire retardant)," developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Forest Science and Daemyung Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., has been selected as the first product for the Public Procurement Service's export-leading innovative product pilot purchase and will proceed with overseas demonstration.

The pilot purchase project aims to secure product reliability by having public institutions actually use innovative products developed by small and medium-sized enterprises through national research and development (R&D) projects, and to increase export potential by conducting product demonstrations in overseas markets. It serves as a stepping stone to help SMEs enter overseas markets.

Through this project, the Korea Forest Service will receive 68 tons of wildfire retardant (market value of 476 million KRW) from the Public Procurement Service and undergo overseas demonstration processes. The overseas demonstration is expected to begin as early as the first half of this year in Cambodia and Paraguay. The Korea Forestry Promotion Institute (a collaborating organization) will be responsible for overall management of the demonstration project.

Previously, the Korea Forest Service invested 280 million KRW in research funding to develop the wildfire retardant. The wildfire retardant has the effect of suppressing ignition for three months even under rainfall of 5 mm per hour after application.

In particular, the wildfire retardant proved its effectiveness in response to the large wildfire recently occurring in Los Angeles (LA), USA. By pre-applying the wildfire retardant to high-risk wildfire areas using helicopters and aircraft, it achieved more than three times the wildfire suppression and blocking effect compared to water, according to the Korea Forest Service.

Above all, the wildfire retardant passed non-toxicity tests conducted by specialized certification institutions such as the Korea Chemical Convergence Testing Institute and the Korea Construction Living Environment Testing Institute, minimizing the impact on soil and ecosystems after use as well as preventing wildfires.

Im Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The selection of the wildfire retardant as the first innovative product to participate in overseas demonstration is an important achievement showing that domestic forest R&D technology has reached a world-class level. As this is the first overseas demonstration, the Korea Forest Service will support the expansion of exports of the wildfire retardant through thorough management and actively promote Korea’s advanced wildfire prevention technology worldwide.”

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