Yeongdeok Snow Crab, Winner of Korea's Representative Brand Award 11 Times

Induction into the 'Hall of Fame'

Yeongdeok Snow Crab, a specialty of Yeongdeok-gun, Gyeongbuk, has been inducted into the Hall of Fame by achieving the great feat of winning the ‘Korea Representative Brand Award’ in the seafood category a total of 11 times, an award recognized as the most prestigious and trustworthy in Korea.

Yeongdeok Snow Crab, awarded the Korea Representative Brand Grand Prize for the 11th time.

The ‘Korea Representative Brand Award,’ jointly hosted by iMBC, DongA.com, and Hankyung.com, was first established in 2006 to identify the best brands that have gained popularity and love from consumers among all domestic brands and to widely promote them to consumers.

This year, preliminary research on sales revenue and market share of each brand by category, along with expert group surveys, selected candidate brands from 520 local governments, 142 public institutions, and 2,490 companies, followed by approximately 3.3 million direct consumer internet surveys.

As a result, among local governments, 23 brands including Yeongdeok Snow Crab exceeded the criteria and received the Representative Brand Award, while 20 companies were named, with the awards ceremony held on the 18th at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul.

Since first receiving the award in 2012, Yeongdeok Snow Crab won consecutively in 2013 and from 2015 to 2019, and again consecutively from 2021 to 2024, setting a record of 11 total wins in the seafood category, earning a place in the Hall of Fame, which only 11 brands nationwide have ever entered.

Yeongdeok Snow Crab inhabits sandy mud rich in nutrients and is abundant in various amino acids and minerals, offering an exquisite mild taste and aroma. Every year from November to May, the Ganggu Snow Crab Street is packed with gourmets from all over the country eager to taste Yeongdeok Snow Crab.

Yeongdeok-gun registered ‘Yeongdeok Snow Crab’ as a trademark in 1998 and has continuously enhanced its brand value by holding the Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival annually. It gained attention when it was featured at the G20 banquet in 2010, attended by leaders from 20 countries, and in 2018, it was exhibited as Korea’s representative seafood product at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, attracting worldwide attention.

To continue the reputation of Yeongdeok Snow Crab, the region’s representative seafood, Yeongdeok-gun has invested 1 billion KRW annually since 2021 to create nursery grounds and spawning sites called Bo-yukcho, and constructed the 56-ton multipurpose fishery patrol vessel Yeongdeok Nuri-ho to monitor and crack down on illegal fishing, striving to protect resources and systematically manage quality.

The Coastal Snow Crab Fishermen’s Association, composed of local fishermen, leads sustainable production and excellent quality maintenance of Yeongdeok Snow Crab through operating private surveillance vessels against illegal fishing, using biodegradable fishing gear, and maintaining fishing grounds. The Ganggu Offshore Shipowners’ Association was the first among snow crab producers to implement a bracelet system certifying the quality of ‘Bakdal Snow Crab,’ greatly enhancing trust in Yeongdeok Snow Crab.

Kim Gwang-yeol, the county governor, expressed his thoughts, saying, “We will continue to implement more active investments and policies for thorough management and protection of snow crab resources so that today’s glory and reputation can be passed on to future generations.”