Very Sweet Jeju Gamgyul

Fresh Food _ Chestnut
chestnut farming. Following last year’s trip to Japan,
this year the members are planning to go to China.
They will take a look at the Chinese chestnut farms
and hope to garner some helpful information from the
local farmers.
Out of the 215 member farms, 50 participate in export
activities and the efforts of the Cooperative enabled
all of them to obtain GAP (Good Agricultural
Practices) certification. Of these 50 farms, 35 farms
have gained the eco-friendly agriproducts certification,
while the rest have obtained the non-agricultural chemicals
certification. These endeavors undoubtedly contributed
to upgrading the value of Buyeo chestnuts. All
the farms that are participating in chestnut exports are
trying hard to achieve safety and gain trust by introducing
and applying the production tracing system.
High Quality Recognized by Korean
Government and Local Administrations
The Buyeo Chestnut Farming Cooperative is
equipped with up-to-date production facilities. On the
total area of 4,379, there is a meeting room as well
as facilities for shell-peeling, processing, packaging,
sorting-out, and collecting.
There is also a CA cold storage system in which
considerably reduced CO2 allows the chestnuts to be
stored and kept fresh. And as part of continuous efforts
to improve its facilities, the Cooperative built a
GAP sorting facility last year.
The Korean central and local governments have acknowledged
the hard work of the Cooperative and
high quality of the Buyeo chestnuts it produces. For
Buyeo Chestnut
Farming
Association
Cooperation’s exporting
items, 4kg
and 1kg package
(right)
example, the chestnut was designated an agro-specialty
in 1996 by recommendation of the then governor
of Chungcheongnam-do. In 2004, the chestnuts
passed the food ingredient inspection conducted by
the U.S. FDA. They can also use the name of
Goodtrae, a brand of high-quality agriproducts produced
in Buyeo. The Cooperative gained ISO9001
certification in 2006 and ISO22000 overseas certification
in 2010. Last year, it was chosen a leading chestnut
exporter by the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade
Corporation (aT).
GAP sorting-out
place of Buyeo
Chestnut Farming
Association
Cooperation (down)
Advancing from Asian to European Markets
The Cooperative’s chestnuts are exported abroad in
aluminum cans (20kg), plastic containers (20kg), and
bags 15kg. The large size whole chestnuts that are
currently exported fetch KRW1,500 ~ 1,700 per kg.
They are expected to be exported to some European
markets, including France, this year. But for the time
being, some members of the Cooperatives are cautious
about getting their hopes up.
Oh Jong-seong, the head of the Buyeo Chestnut
Farming Cooperative, said, “We will strive to manage
the entire export process by ourselves in the future
and will try harder to promote the excellence of
Buyeo chestnuts to consumers all around the world.”
Inquiries Buyeo Chestnut Farming Association Corporation Tel +82-41-833-9933~5 Fax +82-41-833-9936 E-mail byb9933@yahoo.co.kr
24 Korea AgraFood
Issue194 Nov. 2011
25