Governor Kim, “US major market is widely open for Gyeonggi agricultural products”
(Published May 16, 2013)

Gyeonggi Province concluded a cooperative agreement for agricultural exports with H-Mart, the largest market in US on May 16.

◇ Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo concluded a cooperative agreement for agricultural exports with US H-Mart President Brian Kwon and agreed to put joint effort for Gyeonggi Province’s entry to the US market on May 16 at the governor’s office ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News / Heo Seon-ryang

Gyeonggi Province is expected to expand exports of agricultural products to US.

Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo concluded a cooperative agreement for agricultural exports with US H-Mart President Brian Kwon and agreed to put joint effort for Gyeonggi Province’s entry to the US market on May 16 at the governor’s office.

H-Mart is an enterprise with the largest network for food distribution in US among Asian food franchise businesses, and has 41 stores in 13 states including New York, New Jersey, and California, yielding USD 1.2 billion (KRW 1.3 trillion) in annual sales.

According to the agreement of the day, Gyeonggi Province and H-Mart will jointly work for sufficient supply and demand for the exports of Gyeonggi Province’s agricultural products, the enlargement of business in the US market, and promotional events to promote the provincial farm produce.

At the concluding ceremony, Governor Kim Moon-soo said, “It’s a great pleasure to conclude an agreement with H-Mart, which is the largest Korean mart in US, for exports of the excellent agricultural products of Gyeonggi Province. I expect the excellent farm produce of Korea will be served at table in US through H-Mart, which is the largest mart in US.” He added, “Recently, exports of Gyeonggi Province’s agricultural products are steadily increasing. It’s a pleasure that the provincial agricultural products will enter the major market in US through H-Mart and therefore we can increase the exports and gain more stable sales network.”

H-Mart President Brian Kwon said, “This is the first time to conclude a comprehensive agreement with Gyeonggi Province. As Gyeonggi Province’s excellent farm produce enters the US market in accordance with this agreement, it will be a good opportunity to broadly promote Korean foods to Koreans residing in US, not to mention upgrading stores of H-Mart.”

Despite a downturn in foreign economy including the global financial crisis, Gyeonggi’s exports of farm produce have been increasing by yearly 23% for the past 5 years due to aggressive overseas marketing and established infrastructure for exportation

Currently, US is the importing country which accounts for USD 222 million out of the total exports of Gyeonggi farm products of USD 707 million (i.e. 31% of the whole), based on the data of last year, and export items include processed foods such as types of dried lavers, pear, ginseng, Korean sauce, and drinks.

With regard to the agreement, Gyeonggi Province is planning to expand exports into US, which is the largest market among the agricultural products importing countries, by holding promotional events for excellent farm products of the province at H-Mart, which Gyeonggi Province concluded an agreement with, twice this year.

The province plans to hold a promotional event of the first half for 57 agricultural products including dried laver, ginseng, and tea at H-Mart from May 31 to June 9, and that of the second half will be held in September or so.

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province held the purchase consulting and briefing session for excellent agricultural products of the province at Gyeonggi Provincial Office in last October with the participation of parties from H-Mart and 15 provincial farm produce manufacturing companies in order to expand exports into the US market and ultimately to conclude the agreement of this time.

◇ Governor Kim and H-Mart President Brian Kwon have a talk after entering into an agreement. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News / Heo Seon-ryang

ⓒ Gyeonggi G-news | Lim Se-jin yh48635@nate.com

http://gnews.gg.go.kr/news/news_detail.asp?number=201305161659037055C052&s_code=C052