COVID-19 Impacted 'Gyeonggi School Meal Farms' Achieve Consecutive Sellouts... 1 Billion Won in Sales

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province's event to sell agricultural products from school meal farms in the province, which has been ongoing since early last month due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), continues to achieve sold-out success day after day. Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province plans to significantly expand the special sales event throughout the province.

According to Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Agricultural and Food Distribution Promotion Institute on the 5th, the 'Eco-friendly Package Special Sale' event, held four times from the 9th of last month to the 4th of this month to help eco-friendly agricultural contract farms affected by the suspension of school meals, ended successfully with sales close to 1 billion KRW.

The eco-friendly agricultural product sales event, held in a drive-thru format from the 2nd to the 4th at Uiwang Rest Area (toward Gwacheon) on the Seosuwon-Uiwang Expressway and at Anseong Matchum Art Hall, sold all 4.5 tons of prepared products, including 200 boxes of school meal agricultural product packages, 258 sets of mixed grains, and 270 bags of Gyeonggi rice. The total amount was approximately 20.5 million KRW.

The 'Eco-friendly Package Special Sale' began on the 9th of last month, coinciding with the eco-friendly strawberry harvest season. Since then, sales have been conducted through various methods such as group purchases, Kakao Plus Friends, and Naver Smart Store.

In particular, Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung actively promoted the event through social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, adding momentum to the sold-out streak.

Local governments, public institutions, consumer organizations, and school operation committees in the province also participated in joint purchasing activities.

Kang Wi-won, Director of the Gyeonggi Agricultural and Food Distribution Promotion Institute, explained, "This event was planned after hearing the desperate situation of contract farms supplying school meals, and it received explosive responses to the point of receiving complaints about supply and timing at one point," adding, "We are considering various special sale methods and expanding locations."