Lotte Mart Expands Local MD Workforce... "Securing Fresh Food Competitiveness"

Lotte Mart will expand its local MD (regional merchandise planner) staff from 12 to 19 this year.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Lotte Mart announced on the 18th that it will expand its local MD (local merchandise planner) personnel, who build close networks with local farms and systematically manage production areas, from 12 to 19 this year.

As agricultural product prices and meal costs continue to soar, fresh local food is gaining attention. Local food refers to regional agricultural products produced within a 50 km radius without going through long-distance transportation and multi-stage distribution processes. Due to lower distribution margins, it is on average 10-20% cheaper than market prices.

Lotte Mart has more than doubled both the number of new farms and local food products compared to 2019. This year, it plans to showcase about 80 varieties of local food produced by 198 farms, including newly launched dawn-harvested strawberries, peaches, and corn.

To boost local food, Lotte Mart has launched the K-Variety project, accelerating activities to promote domestic varieties and increase income for cultivating farms. The representative product, Black Winner Watermelon, is a new domestic variety characterized by a thin rind, crisp texture, and high sweetness. Lotte Mart discovered it by engaging in all areas from seeds to contract cultivation with excellent farms and store sales. Following a sell-out in its first year of release last year, sales from July to August this year increased by 226.3% compared to the previous year.

Last month, Lotte Mart signed a business agreement with the Rural Development Administration’s National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science for the development of domestic new varieties, providing sales channels, and promotion. Through this, it plans to expand sales of K-variety agricultural products from 32.6 billion KRW last year to 50 billion KRW this year by introducing varieties such as Gamhong apples, Chuhwang pears, and Yeongju Byeol apples.

Kang Seonghyun, CEO of Lotte Mart, said, "Based on strategic collaboration with local farms, local governments, and institutions, we will continue to discover excellent local production areas and develop K-varieties. We will continue activities that deliver the freshness of production areas and new experiences to customers."