Seungjun Kim, Jeju Provincial Assembly Member, Holds Meeting with Black Sapphire Cultivators

[Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Chang-won] On the 22nd, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kim Seung-jun, a member of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Council, with Black Sapphire cultivators and officials from the provincial and agricultural technology centers.

The farmers attending the meeting proposed policy support measures to expand the distribution of various income crops in response to global market liberalization such as CPTTP and climate change.

The Jeju Citrus Promotion Division and the Western Agricultural Technology Center responded that they will continue to discover and expand support for new projects in other fruit tree sectors through the cultivation of strong small-scale farmers policy.

Councilor Kim Seung-jun said, “Jeju’s fruit industry faces difficulties in meeting the demands of market liberalization and changing consumer fruit purchasing preferences,” adding, “We will continuously establish support policies to increase farm income by introducing and distributing new income crops and building a multi-variety, small-quantity production base.”

Meanwhile, Black Sapphire, originally from the United States, is a seedless grape shaped like an eggplant with a high sugar content of around 20°Bx, and is recently emerging as a new income crop.

Currently, Black Sapphire cultivation in Jeju is carried out by 13 farms over 3.3 hectares.

Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Chang-won baekok@asiae.co.kr