Last month, Gyeonggi signed an agreement for the export of Hwasung grape, which allowed exporting of 250t grapes to overseas. For the commemoration of signing this Agreement, the province opened a ceremony named ‘2006 Grape Export Agreement Ceremony’. The very first export under this agreement was sent on August 18 to USA with 660kg of grapes. Having this Agreement will give Gyeonggi a great opportunity to establish a strong presence of local grapes in the global market.

Being able to export agricultural goods to USA market was not an easy job, when they take extremely serious view on the safety and quality of the products. Upon the continuous efforts by Gyeonggi province and Hwasung Agricultural Technology Center to protect local agricultural business from the FTA agreed between Korea and Chile in 2003, Hwasung became the representative exporter for the Grapes and last year they shipped 53t to USA for the first time in history. They also recorded 200t of exports to the other countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and etc.

For high quality of the goods and their perfect safety, the National Plant Quarantine Service has executed various field inspections to prevent any harmful insects and other poisonous factors from the grapes. Also, the National Quality Management Service implemented a sample test to detect and remove 135 different insecticides sprayed on the grapes.

Gyeonggi also committed itself to provide active and diverse supports to increase grape exports, such as establishment of various overseas sales plan, consultation to bolster export, provision of necessary information regarding overseas market and etc. Also, monthly meeting with all the export concerned parties such as Hwasung Agricultural Technology Center, Hwasung Grape Export Committee, Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation and etc. is slated to open to aid export sales.

Gyeonggi will be able to establish a stabilized foothold for the export of Korean grapes thru the on-the-spot sales promotion activities which are planned to be implemented in October in 25 extensive sales channels of 7 different countries such as Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and etc. Prior to the sales promotions to be implemented in Asia, it will be performed in LA in September.

“We believe that the export is the only way for our farming industry to survive in the current fierce market. Therefore, it is our goal to produce high quality products that are tailored to overseas customer’s tastes, so to raise our international competitiveness and expand our pie in the overseas market.” said one of the officials from the Gyeonggi province.