Ministry of SMEs and Startups Listens to On-Site Difficulties in Boseong Green Tea Special Zone

Sustained Sales Growth and Development of the Tea Industry Centered on the Green Tea Industrial Zone

Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 3rd that the Regulatory Free Zone Planning Team of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Director Baek Un-man, hereinafter referred to as the Planning Team) visited the Boseong Green Tea Industry Special Zone.

The Planning Team visited the Boseong Green Tea Industry Special Zone, which has been designated as an excellent special zone in Korea, toured representative facilities such as the Boseong Green Tea Processing and Distribution Center, the Korea Tea Museum, Botjae, and Dahyang Art Valley, inspected the operational status, and listened to difficulties.

[Photo by Boseong-gun]

Baek Un-man, who visited Boseong and toured the site, said, “I feel how much effort the Boseong-gun officials and tea industry workers have put into continuing the beautiful heritage and industry, and we will work together to find ways to develop further.”

Boseong-gun was designated as the ‘Boseong Green Tea Industry Special Zone’ in 2007, covering Boseong-eup, Hoecheon-myeon, and Ungchi-myeon, and was recognized for its operational achievements in attracting companies related to tea, increasing residents’ income, and revitalizing the local economy, being selected as an excellent special zone in 2012, 2014, and 2019.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, Botjae Greendahyang and Green Market achieved sales of 443 million KRW as of the end of November 2022, recording a cumulative visitor count of 82,959, marking the greatest performance since opening.

Now in its second year since opening, Dahyang Art Valley is a tea culture complex where visitors can experience various activities using green tea, such as a green tea outlet, green pork sales, green tea cafe, and green tea kimchi, injecting new vitality into the Boseong tea industry.

Efforts are also being made to strengthen the cultural content sector leading the development of the tea industry. From April 29 to May 7, the ‘11th Boseong World Tea Expo’ will be held around the Green Tea Industry Special Zone.

Held under the theme ‘Millennium Boseong Tea, Embracing the World,’ this Boseong World Tea Expo will be conducted as an integrated festival-type expo, simultaneously featuring the Boseong Dahyang Grand Festival, Seopyeonje Boseong Sound Festival, Illimsan Azalea Festival, and nationwide sports competitions.

A Boseong-gun official said, “We will do our best to leap forward as a complex cultural tourism industrial complex that widely promotes Boseong’s history, tea culture, and tea industry by linking Botjae, Dahyang Art Valley, the Korea Tea Museum, and the Seawater Green Tea Center.”

Boseong = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Cheon-seok hss79@asiae.co.kr