In the 2nd Year of Project Implementation, 24 Locations and 1,042 Farms Participated, Achieving Annual Sales of 3.8 Billion KRW
Supporting Agricultural Product Collection, Packaging, Online and Offline Sales, and Overall Promotion and Distribution
A project to develop sales channels for agricultural products from distribution-vulnerable farms is underway in Gyeongbuk.
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwiyeol] Gyeongbuk Province is revitalizing small-scale farmers, elderly farmers, women farmers, and other distribution-vulnerable farms struggling to secure sales channels for agricultural specialty products through a supportive project.
On the 19th, Gyeongbuk Province announced that the currently ongoing ‘Support Project for Expanding Sales Channels for Distribution-Vulnerable Farms in Agricultural and Food Products’ is receiving a great response.
This project supports farm organization, education, establishment of online sales networks, and packaging materials in villages where more than 30 vulnerable farms participate.
A distribution assistant representing the village is responsible for the overall distribution, including collecting agricultural products on a rotating basis, packaging, online sales, and customer management, which has been well received by the farms.
Since the pilot project in 2020, Gyeongbuk Province said that in its second year, the number of participating villages and farms, as well as sales, have shown a significant increase.
In the first year, 2020, it started with 20 locations, 648 farms, and sales of 2.8 billion KRW, and last year, with 24 locations and 1,042 farms participating, sales reached 3.8 billion KRW, a 36% increase compared to the previous year.
To strengthen the project, Gyeongbuk Province has established a management system for distribution-vulnerable farms to systematically manage farm and product information as well as settlement tasks.
They are also promoting the project by producing promotional videos featuring participating farms that evoke nostalgia for hometown villages.
In addition to building offline-linked sales networks such as participating in summer fruit sales promotion events at ‘E-Mart,’ they have created a special section on the Gyeongbuk agricultural specialty product shopping mall ‘Saiseo’ and are pioneering online sales channels through live commerce broadcasts involving farms.
As the number of participating farms and sales increase, farm satisfaction is also rising.
As a representative case, in Bukhu-myeon, Andong, currently 35 farms participate, selling rice, apples, red pepper powder, and yam.
Kang Sang-gu, a distribution assistant at Nongbu Market, expressed gratitude, saying, “When we were struggling due to the collapse of ginger prices, support for offline sales linkage and online sales through Saiseo and Naver was a great help.”
In Yeongdeok Peach Village, farms donated sweet potatoes produced by the farms to a nursing home for the elderly, delivering warm hearts to those in greater need.
A Gyeongbuk Province official said, “While various sales channel development is necessary to respond to changes in the large-scale and industrialized distribution ecosystem, independent sales of agricultural products by small-scale or elderly farms have limitations,” adding, “We will ensure that there are no difficulties in selling the agricultural products produced.”
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