"Pepper Farming Increased" Busan Gijang-gun Also Expands Dryers

Expansion of Chili Dryer Rental Business... Increasing Rental Demand Due to Growth in Urban Agriculture

A woman drying chili peppers harvested under the sun. As the chili pepper harvest increases in Gijang-gun, Busan, the rental business for dryers is expanding. [Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Although small-scale personal cultivation of chili peppers has increased, there is a shortage of drying machines to process them, so Busan's Gijang-gun has decided to expand its drying machine rental business.

Busan Gijang-gun Agricultural Technology Center announced on the 27th that it will expand the agricultural product drying machine rental business by adding two more agricultural product drying machines this year to coincide with the peak chili pepper harvest season. As a result, Gijang-gun will operate a total of 12 machines with 26 compartments each.

The agricultural product drying machine rental business in Gijang-gun rents out drying machines at low cost to farms without drying machines to reduce farm management expenses and increase farmers' income and convenience.

Farmers who wish to dry agricultural products such as chili peppers can use the service by making a reservation in advance. Reservations can be made online, by phone, or by visiting the Agricultural Technology Center.

Applications must be submitted at least three days before the desired usage date, starting from 30 days in advance. Since drying chili peppers takes 48 hours, the service operates only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the usage fee is affordable at 10,000 KRW per compartment (approximately 50 kg of chili peppers).

An official from the Agricultural Technology Center said, “With the recent increase in urban suburban garden farms, chili peppers, a representative crop of field farming, are being widely cultivated. A large quantity of chili peppers is harvested at once, and a significant amount is discarded due to the inability to dry them all, so we are renting out agricultural product drying machines.”