▲ pear

Chungnam held an evaluation meeting in its headquarters on November 19, 2013. 60 people including leaders of research and business cooperation foundations on special regional produce and technical advisors attended the meeting, 

The research and business cooperation foundations on five major special farm products, namely, tomato, pear, Insam (ginseng), chrysanthemum and lily, not only involve universities, agricultural cooperatives, governmental agencies and research institutes, but also secure 103 technical advisors.

The tomato cooperation foundation connected EK Export, an exporting company, with 11 farms in Buyeo and Nonsan through an export management system called TEMS and helped them export 77 tons of tomatoes worth 190,000 dollars overseas.

The foundation also developed a QR code that allows to check production data in real time and supplied it to over 40 member farmers. In addition, it developed a pest control made of oleic acid and processed foods such as sweet jelly and syrup that can be made from tomatoes with some defects.

The pear cooperation foundation focused on promoting 16 pear farms (57 ha) with the GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification and exported 1363 tons of pears worth 3.3 million dollars. It also succeeded in commercializing processed products using pear and wheat, such as healthy walnut muffins, pear beverage and pear Makgeolli (Korean native alcoholic beverage), which will contribute to expand the consumption of pear.

The Insam (ginseng) cooperation foundation supported to develop a technology to manufacture black ginseng, which will be useful for expanding organic ginseng production and enhancing the efficacy of local ginseng. It also developed various ginseng products such as ginseng chips, fermented ginseng and Korean black ginseng.

The foundation exported 300 kg ginseng with the JGAP (Japan Good Agricultural Practices) certification to Japan and edible cosmetics  biovita to China (2.8 million dollars) and Singapore (100,000 dollars).

The chrysanthemum cooperation foundation trained farmers specialized in seedlings free from chrysanthemum stunt viroid (CVSd) in order to increase the supply of CVSd-free plants and seeds. It has also provided consulting services on chrysanthemum breeds suitable to regional conditions and commercialization. Thanks to the opening of a distribution center in Yesan, it achieved 800,000 dollars in export. 

Taking advantage of a local lily bulb production complex, the lily cooperation foundation hosted local festivals to simulate the local tourism business and economy. The foundation maintained facilities of the complex, developed new technologies to preserve cut flowers fresh and provided consulting services for farmhouses. It also signed an MOU with Lingyuanlanxing of China to lay a foundation for the export to China and earned 1.2 million dollars in exports to Japan.

In the meeting, the foundations shared best practices regarding on-site technical issues and exports and discussed how to make future business projects successful based on past achievements.