Gangwon-do Potatoes Sold Out Consecutively... Choi Moon-soon "Thank You for Cherishing Gangwon-do Potatoes"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Gangwon Province's "Gangwon-do Potatoes," which started selling to support farmers struggling due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), has been selling out day after day.

Gangwon-do Potatoes, which began sales on the Naver Smart Store on the 13th, sold out within 5 minutes, showing a strong response from consumers.

Earlier, on the 11th, Governor Choi Moon-soo introduced 10kg of potatoes at a sensational price of 5,000 KRW including shipping through the "Gangwon-do Agricultural Specialty Products Genuine Center," directly operated by the Gangwon Provincial Government.

As this news spread, 100,000 people rushed in at once, causing the sales site server to temporarily go down due to exceeding transmission capacity within 2 hours. According to Gangwon Province, all 1,400 boxes of potatoes prepared for the day were sold out.

On the second day of sales, the 12th, additional potato stock was secured and the site server was expanded, but the site was paralyzed again due to 1 million simultaneous accesses.

To prevent site downtime, Gangwon Province moved the sales channel to the Naver Smart Store on the 13th, and the potatoes sold out within 5 minutes of the sales start.

As the potatoes quickly sold out, consumers flooded inquiries such as "Limit the purchase quantity per person like masks and then resume sales," and "Please inform us of the restock schedule."

Governor Choi Moon-soo expressed gratitude on Twitter that day, saying, "Thank you so much for cherishing Gangwon-do Potatoes," and added, "Thanks to Naver providing the server (without commission), we were able to accept orders again."

Governor Choi Moon-soo launched the potato sales because although production increased by 21% compared to the average year, consumption sentiment shrank due to COVID-19, resulting in decreased sales. Various efforts are underway to reduce potato stock, but the inventory in Gangwon Province still reaches 11,000 tons.

Gangwon Province fully supports shipping fees, packaging costs, and card fees with provincial funds to lower the potato sales price cheaper than the market price.