[K-FOOD GOES GLOBAL] K-grapes looking to shine on international shelves

Shine muscat, a grape of opulence, has single-handedly lifted up Korea's once-wilting grape industry.

Hwang Eui-chang, representing director of Korea Grape Export Association [K-GRAPE]

Shine muscat, a grape of opulence, has single-handedly lifted up Korea's once-wilting grape industry.

Now, amid increasingly heated competition, Korea is seeking to further bolster its foothold in the global market, riding on the surging popularity of K-culture.

“Korean grapes exported overseas, I think, showcase the country's class,” Hwang Eui-chang, representing director of the Korea Grape Export Association (K-grape), told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“That's why we are focusing on improving the quality of the products," stressed Hwang.

K-grape, established in 2019, is an integrated export organization of producers and exporters. As of July, K-grape has 99 producers, 107 export companies and some 2,800 farms as its members. Member companies saw a 29 percent increase in export revenue from 2019 to 2022, now reaching $30.2 million.

Shine muscat grape [K-GRAPE]

Ahead of the arrival of summer, grape vineyards decide on the size of each grape and the number of crops to grow based on the previously placed export orders.

Such an order-based grape farming system was first implemented this year by K-grape, in a bid to further bolster the country’s grape exports and ensure a stable supply. This year, overseas buyers placed orders for some 3,900 tons of grapes, according to the K-grape chief. K-grape's total export volume stood at 1,766 tons last year.

Hwang has been a grape farmer himself with over 40 years of experience. Before heading the export organization, he served as the chief of the Korean Grape Farmers' Association for nine years, leading the wider adoption of the shine muscat variety in Korea.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What have been some of the challenges that K-grape has faced in ramping up grape exports so far?

A. Korea began to export shine muscat grapes in 2015, and by 2018, the exporters started dumping [produce at a low value] in Vietnam and China.

I thought the price situation would get only worse if we do not do anything about this, and therefore made a request to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for its support in setting up an export organization in 2019.

I always advise the exporters to compete with quality rather than pricing.

Pushing up the export volume is one of our biggest goals, but promoting the excellent quality of Korean grapes is just as important because such a reputation would ultimately lead to an increase in export volume.

What is your plan to further expand the export market?

K-grape is currently exporting grapes to 22 countries and plans to push the number up to 24 this year with the addition of India and Indonesia.

As the shine muscat vineyard acreage and production are continuously growing in Korea, I thought that producers would inevitably need to turn to exports, which is why we are striving to diversify export channels.

That also helped us last year, when our exports to China accounted for only 8.7 to 8.9 percent of our total, compared to 22.7 percent in the previous year.

So when China's economic situation turned unfavorable, we could shift export volume to other regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, which enabled us to maintain our performance as usual.

Could you tell us about the efforts that K-grape is making in order to improve product quality?

We have our own quality grading system, under which products with only the top three rating grades are allowed for export.

Moreover, we provide free education for grape producers, covering all stages of grape farming from soil science to storage technologies. Upon the producers’ request, our 10 instructors visit the producers to offer about 150 teaching sessions a year. I also offer teaching sessions in production based on my experience as the head of the Korean Grape Farmers' Association.

What are the challenges that need to be tackled to further expand the foothold of Korean grapes in the market?

The biggest problem is counterfeit products from China.

For example, there is a farming cooperative that supplies one of the most expensive grapes to overseas markets, and boxes with the cooperative’s logo are everywhere in Hong Kong and Vietnam when that cooperative has not even completed the harvesting. These are all counterfeit products.

Left: Anti-counterfeit wrapping paper that shows a Korean national flag symbol when exposed to laser light. Right: K-Grape's shine muscat is packaged in anti-counterfeit wrapping material. [K-GRAPE]

In some cases, there are boxes with a sign saying that it is made in China in the Korean language.

In order to prevent such copycat products, we have developed an anti-counterfeit wrapping material that shows the Korean national flag when exposed to laser light. Starting this year, all of the grapes from K-grape are going to be wrapped in this anti-counterfeit package.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]