New Agricultural Ideas Finally Pay Off

These days, the agricultural sector is beginning to shift its attention to uncontested market space.

Geongangnara (Healthy World) and Jangsaengdoraji (Perpetual Chinese Bellflowers) are good examples of this development. Geongangnara is a successful vegetable sprout producer, and Jangsaengdoraji, an agricultural company that deals in candy, powders, and pills made out of Chinese bellflowers, has developed itself as an industrial company that can afford to handle marketing, distribution, and processing.

These companies prove that agricultural production can be lucrative business if armed with creative ideas and quality.

Lee Yeong-chun, 49, hated to go out with his father when he was young because his father, Lee Seong-ho, 75, was known as the “Chinese bellflower fanatic” in his neighborhood.

In 1954, his father, a 23-year-old young man then, started studying this plant and struggled to find a way to prolong the life of this plant. His efforts, however, hardly paid off because Chinese bellflowers live only three years on average. Because of this, the family’s financial condition worsened to extent that his father couldn’t pay the high school fee for Lee.

His father didn’t give up, however, and concentrated on his studies even more after moving to Mt. Jiri. In 1991, his father finally succeeded in developing perpetual Chinese bellflowers and received a patent from the government in accordance with the Plant Growing Act, the first such award since the law was enacted.

However, his father was saddled with 2.8 billion won in debts due to the construction of a processing factory for the newly developed plant. So in 1997 he asked his son, Lee Yeong-chun, for help.

Lee, who worked as a manager of the personnel department of Samsung Aircraft (now known as Samsung Techwin), at that time—a rare case of a high-school graduate being promoted to the managerial level—couldn’t say no to his father even though he had to finish a high school with little financial assistance from his father.

Lee quit his job and took over his father’s business. Lee’s participation boosted the company’s annual sales from 24 million won to more than one billion won in a year by mainly applying aircraft production methods to Chinese bellflower production. In 2005, 51 years after his father started his study of the Chinese bellflower, Jangsaengdoragi has transformed itself into a healthy agricultural company that has 5.3 billion won in annual sales. His father is called the “Chinese bellflower doctor” now. And Lee, who used to be reluctant to go out with his father, is now the son of the president of Chinese Bellflower Research Institute.

Geongangnara-

When 44-year-old Han Gyeong-hi started her vegetable sprout business after establishing Geongangnara in 2003, people were cynical and said, “How can you think of eating sprouts that are not fully ripe?”

Despite this, she pushed forward with her plans. After realizing that edible flowers used to decorate luxury dishes has been mostly abandoned, Han thought that it would be a good idea to replace them with vegetable sprouts.

The return of the trend of seeking well-being also contributed her success.

Her vegetable sprouts are reaped five or 10 days after natural (chemical-free) seeds are planted. If the reaping is late just by one day, the harvest goes to waste.

Starting in August 2004, Han has also provided anti-cancer vegetable sprouts such as Amaranth, beet, and vitamin to the Shilla Hotel thanks to the recommendation of the Gyeonggi-do Agricultural Research and Extension Service. Currently, Han offers them to seven five-star hotels.

“I desperately appealed to hotels because of the lack of awareness of the benefits of vegetable sprouts at that time,” Han said. “I believe that the key of my success is a promotion strategy that focused on making high-class customers realize the quality and freshness of sprouts.”

Han now provides sprouts to department stores as vegetables, and to hotels as luxury foods in a 7:3 ratio. The company’s stable income is achievable thanks to consistent hotel sales.

Han first started farming in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do in 1983 when she graduated high school. She studied how to increase her profits, and her persistence has paid off. Geongangnara now records over 100 million won in monthly sales.