콩가공산업의 중장기 발전 전략: 두부 및 장류산업을 중심으로

Abstract

본 세부과제는 두부와 장류를 중심으로 콩가공산업의 시장구조분석과 제품에 대한 소비자평가를 통해 콩가공산업의 당면문제를 도출하고 추진전략을 제시하고자 하였다. 두부 및 장류산업이 당면하고 있는 문제는 원료의 안정적 확보문제, 과학적 품질관리, 국산제품의 차별화를 위한 인증기반 미흡, 다양한 제품개발 및 R&D 미흡, 과점적 시장의 극심한 가격경쟁에 따른 중소기업 발전의 제약, 전통장류와 두부소비시장의 위축 등으로 요약된다. 해당 산업의 당면문제를 극복하고 발전해 나아가기 위해서는 다음과 같은 발전방향이 기본적으로 모색되어야 한다. 첫째, 국산콩의 사용 확대를 위한 기반이 조성되어야 한다. 둘째, 품질관리의 과학화가 필요하다. 셋째, 신제품 개발 등을 위한 R&D 투자확대가 필요하다. 넷째, 소비촉진을 위한 여건조성이 이루어져야 한다.

The purpose of this report is to derive current issues in the soybean processing industry by means of market structure analysis of the soybean processing industry and consumers' evaluation of tofu and bean paste products then to present a strategy for promotion of the industry. The market size of the tofu and paste business is estimated to be 417 billion won for tofu production and 923 billion won for bean paste production to be one trillion and 340 billion won in total. With consumer's increasing interest in healthy living, the tofu and paste market continues to grow. In terms of the number of employees of the soybean processing companies, 95.5% of tofu production companies and 85.3% of bean paste production companies employ at most 9 staffs, meaning very small scale business. Market shares by big 3 companies are 51.7% for tofu production and 53.3% for bean paste production, indicating highly concentrated market shares to result in a market structure of monopoly and oligopoly. Two of CJ and Daesang occupy most of the Gochujang (chilli paste), soybean paste and Ssamjang (spicy soybean paste) market except soy sauce as of 2010. In the tofu market, intense competition is exhibited by large-scale companies of Pulmuone, CJ and Daesang FNF. The value added ratio shown from the market result analysis for both of tofu and paste production was higher than the average food production business. On the other hand, per capita labor productivity (the amount of value added) for tofu and paste production was exhibited lower than the average of food production business. Tofu production companies exhibit higher debt ratios than the average of food production companies, which was rapidly reduced in early 2000, but started to increase after 2003. The soybean processing companies purchase most of beans harvested in Korea from farmers (41%) and sellers (30%), and only 1/3 of beans purchased from farmers are from contract cultivation, meaning inactivated contract cultivation, so that it is considered that systematic connection between tofu production companies and farmers is required. Tofu production companies prefer Korean beans in terms of good quality and safety, but it was shown that the high price of raw beans impedes purchasing more Korean beans. In the result of consumers' evaluation of food processed with farm products, the origin of raw beans for tofu and paste highly affect their preference. The investigation showed that the reason of preferring and being interested in products made of Korean beans is because of safety and better quality as compared to imported beans. In terms of prospects for the key product markets, it is predicted that there will not be significant growth in the bean paste and tofu market, but the wellbeing product or premium product market will continue grow. The current issue of the tofu and paste industry is to ensure stable supply of raw beans, scientific quality control, an authentication basis for differentiation of products made of Korean raw beans, diversified products and more R&D, restriction in developing small & medium-sized enterprises due to intense competition of prices in the oligopoly market, shrinking consumption in the traditional bean paste and tofu market, etc. The following direction of development is presented to overcome current problems in the industry for continued development. First, construct a basis for using more Korean beans. Second, scientific management is required. Third, more R&D investment is required for developing new products. Fourth, it is necessary to encourage people to eat more tofu and bean paste products. As a strategy for promotion, it is necessary to set a scheme for reducing the cost of bean production. To this end, it is necessary to develop technology of sowing to reduce moisture injury to plants in farms. Developing new high yield breeds enables production costs to be reduced. It is necessary to develop breeds for enhancing processing aptitude. A system established for using bean related farm appliances contributes to reducing expenses. It is necessary to establish a basis for supplying beans from a place of production in order to secure a proper volume of beans by means of arrangement and organization for bean production and to establish bean distribution centers mechanized for careful selection, sorting and drying after harvests to stably supply raw beans of uniform quality to tofu and bean paste producers. For activated contract cultivation, it is desirable for farmers to conclude a contract for cultivation with farmers' cooperatives or farmers' associations. It is necessary that farmers' cooperatives and associations provide deposits to farmers with the raw material purchase fund from the government in advance, and sell beans to tofu and bean paste producers on credit to financially assist them. Another possible plan is to organize a 'bean industry development association' by bean farmers in each region and bean processing companies for mutual information exchange and understanding the other party. A project is necessary for organizing a nationwide union for connection between large scale companies and local farmers. For producing high quality bean paste and tofu, it is necessary to produce and propagate breeds of good processing aptitude. For traditional bean paste, emphasis should be laid on bean breed control, development and provision of dedicated fungi and quality standardization for traditional bean paste. It is necessary to develop and research a production process for safe control of fungi and reducing risk factors in bean paste, and adaptability of safety control criteria for fermented foods should be verified. It is necessary to continue to introduce objective food safety control systems, e.g., HACCP authentication, and to ensure consumer's reliability by means of construction of quality control system for each step, enforcement of the country of origin markings, using the production history scheme. For bean paste, it is necessary to develop products together with diversified products, e.g., products of lower level of saltiness and smell typical of traditional bean paste, short- and long-term aging products, products which are applicable to western food culture, e.g., sauces, and to use containers and packages appealing customers, etc. It is necessary to examine promotion of joint activities by organizing a traditional bean paste union (draft) with traditional bean paste producers. It is desirable that companies together with the union raise funds for their own purposes to carry out projects for encouraging more consumption of products, R&D, education and training by means of joint advertisement, events, etc. Joint marketing should be promoted by developing a common brand. The logos and characters for the common brand can be used for advertisement in media, e.g, TV, radios, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, etc. It is necessary to develop tofu and bean paste as products combined with traditional culture, not as a simple commercial product, and to open markets related to tourism, etc. For activated sale, active cultural marketing is necessary. For example, the traditional bean paste factories can be used as a multi-purpose space for actual experience, training, eating-out, etc. It is necessary to inherit the tradition of traditional food culture by means of commercialization research together with searching, keeping, studying and developing traditional foods. Research and development of traditional bean paste is needed to be carried out in various ways to identify functional substances and prove the functions. The Korean government should study superiority of the foods with reference to the various result of research to actively inform consumers thereof. The gist of this research is that the raw Korean soybeans are competitive in quality, but every effort for reducing the raw material cost should systematically be made from the step of breed development to the steps of processing and distribution so that tofu and bean paste companies continuously use beans produced in Korea. In addition, organization and arrangement of bean growing farms is another important challenge for a stable volume of supply and systematic quality control of raw material. The Korean government is now establishing the Phase 2 Food Industry Initiative and I hope the strategies described in detail and presented in this study to be reflected and executed. There was a limitation due to restricted accessibility to data for comparing and analyzing the market structure of the individual processing industry. In particular, it was not easy to carry out comparison and analysis because of a difference in the manner of industry classification and inconsistent investigation in details of the data from the Statistics Korea and the Korea Food and Drug Administration. It is recommended to make every effort to construct a systematic DB for food industry statistics for systematic and consistent research of the food industry. Researchers: Choi Ji-Hyeon, Lee Kyei-Im, Cho So-hyunE-mail Address: jihchoi@krei.re.kr