Korea and Japan Unite Over the Homeland of Sweet Potatoes

Haenam-gun - Kagoshima NPO Goguma World Center Business Agreement

On the 21st, Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that it signed a business agreement with the Kagoshima NPO Sweet Potato World Center and the East Asia Sweet Potato Friendship Association in Japan, and decided to actively establish a cooperative system for the development of the sweet potato industry.

The business agreement ceremony held at the Kagoshima Prefecture NPO Sweet Potato World Center was attended by Myung Hyun-gwan, the governor of Haenam-gun, and Shigeki Kouhara, chairman of the NPO Sweet Potato World Center and the East Asia Sweet Potato Friendship Association, along with officials from both organizations.

County Governor Myeon-gwan Myung (left) visited Kagoshima Village in Japan to sign a business agreement and took a commemorative photo with Goohara, Chairman of the Sweet Potato World Center. Provided by Haenam County

According to the agreement, both organizations agreed to actively support and cooperate in private exchanges and information sharing for the development of the sweet potato industry, and to build a friendly cooperative system.

In particular, they agreed to cooperate in the development of a convergence industry utilizing sweet potatoes through mutual information exchange and cooperation for the development of tourism and culture related to sweet potato cultivation, processing, and sales.

Governor Myung Hyun-gwan said, “Through this business agreement, we will seek to activate the sweet potato convergence industry by reflecting quality differentiation and various successful processing cases so that Haenam sweet potatoes can target the global market beyond being the best in the nation.”

Chairman Kouhara responded, “I understand that Haenam sweet potatoes have grown remarkably and achieved significant development over the past decade. Since processing fields such as desserts, especially frozen processing, have just taken their first steps, if there is an opportunity through this agreement, I would like to advise on systems and programs such as machinery and equipment to help develop the Haenam sweet potato processing industry.”

Kagoshima Prefecture, located in southern Kyushu, Japan, is known as the home of sweet potatoes and is one of Japan’s representative sweet potato production areas.