Jeollanamdo sends first container of products to sell on Amazon Europe

On February 26, 2021 officials of Jeollanamdo held a shipping ceremony for the first ever container of food products to be send off to Europe to be sold on Amazon Europe. This first shipment contains over 15 different products, such as seaweed, dried fish snacks and different kinds of tea and juice. The products will be sold exclusively under the brand Jeollanamdo The Kitchen of Korea.

As the Jeollanamdo brand The Kitchen of Korea is already entering its second year in the US market after a successful first year, Jeollanamdo is now keen to repeat this success in Europe.

The container is expected to arrive in Hamburg, Germany in late March and the products will first be sold throughout the whole European Union, using the Amazon online stores of four European countries: Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Jeollanamdo The Kitchen of Korea is a registered trademark by Jeollanamdo. The goal of the brand is to enable easy and direct access to food products from Jeollanamdo. Read more.

By directly promoting food products from the region, Jeollanamdo aims to offer agricultural and marine products at reasonable prices. In order to do this, Jeollanamdo and nine export companies have registered the Exporter Certificate of Origin. This certificate allows exporters from Jeollanamdo to prove their country of origin so that they can benefit from the free trade agreement between the Republic of Korea and the European Union.

The European Union has the second highest growth rates in the online food market and thanks to the growing awareness and interest in Korean culture and products, Jeollanamdo is aiming to establish its own products in Europe.

POSCO announces to expand its battery cathode plant in Jeollanamdo

POSCO Chemical, part of Korea’s steel giant POSCO, announced that it will expand to a 4th battery cathode plant in Gwangyang, Jeollanamdo in order to meet the huge demands in the electric vehicle (EV) battery market.

POSCO Chemical is one of the main tenant companies of the Main Industrial Complexes in Gwangyang Bay Area. Since 2019 it has been expanding its EV-battery-plants from originally 5,000-ton capacity. The 4th expansion will bring the capacity up to 100,000 tons.

The company will invest about 250 million US dollar in this project and expects the new plant to be operational by 2023. The expansion is part of POSCO’s new brand “e Autopos” which will produce exclusively steel parts and batteries for electric vehicles.

This expansion proves once again that Jeollanamdo plays a crucial part in Korea’s response to climate change and Korea’s growing Blue Economy.

Jeollanamdo Strawberries from Damyang secured variety protection right in EU until 2040

Damyang is a county in northern Jeollanamdo and it is famous for its sweet strawberries. Now, their strawberry breeds “jukhyang” and “damhyang” have secured variety protection right in the EU for the next 20 years until 2040. By this, jukhyang and damhyang become the first Korean strawberries to have received variety protection rights by the European Community Plant Variety Office. This decision will lay the ground for further entry of Jeollanamdo’s strawberries on the European market.

The term ‘Variety protection’ means the rights to multiply, produce, export or import seeds of a protected variety for commercial use in the world market, or to make an offer for transfer and rental belong solely to the breeder. Therefore securing the breeder a monopoly position to manage and control the distribution of their product.

Strawberries from Jeollanamdo are widely popular because of their sweet taste and low costs. So far Korean strawberries are being exported to over 20 countries all around the world. Among the biggest importers are Hong Kong and Singapore. Now, as the strawberries breeds damhyang and jukhyang are protected in Europe, the exports and sells of strawberries from Jeollanamdo are expected to grow further.

Jeollanamdo aims at Amazon exports worth 5 million dollars

The government of Jeollanamdo held its first export shipping ceremony of 2021, as the first container, carrying 246,000 dollar worth of Jeollanamdo’s products, was sent off to the USA. Products shipped on that day include processed abalone and organic seaweed.

Lee Sang-jin, international cooperation officer of Jeollanamdo, said, “With the aim of exporting $5 million this year, we plan to add more than 50 products and open new Jeollanamdo brand stores on Amazon in three countries including Canada and the United Kingdom.”

The Jeollanamdo brand is entering its second year in the United States and the province is eager to expand to markets in Europe and Canada. The province is giving selected items a comparative advantage by directly promoting the products without costly middle men and therefore ensuring fair prices for the customers as well as fair payment for the producers.

President Moon unveils plans for world’s largest wind farm in Jeollanamdo

On February 5th, South Korean President Moon Jae-in unveiled the investment agreement to form the world’s largest offshore wind farm in Sinan-gun, Jeollanamdo. The wind farm will be located off the coast of Sinan-gun, a county consisting of over 1000 islands, just west of the coast of Mokpo and Yeongam county. According to President Moon, the city of Mokpo will become the logistics hub, while large manufacturing complexes will be build in Yeongam and Sinan to produce the needed equipment.

The wind farm to be built on the waters off Sinan will be as much as seven times the size of the world’s current largest wind power complex. The 8.2 gigawatts of electricity to be generated here is equivalent to the capacity of six new Korean nuclear power reactors combined. This immense amount of electricity can meet the needs of every household in Seoul and Incheon. 

President Moon Jae-in

The agreement includes a 48 trillion Won investment plan as well as a plan to create about 120,000 jobs in Jeollanamdo by 2030. The wind farm is part of the President’s Korean New Deal, a plan to focus investments on technologies which help to move the country towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

Read President Moon Jae-in’s speech in full here.

Further information on the Korean New Deal plan by President Moon Jae-in can be found on the website of the Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Ministry provides a detailed English booklet explaining the Korean New Deal. It can be downloaded here.