천일염 가공산업 발전 전략

Abstract

이 연구는 5년간 수행되는 장기과제의 3년차 연구로서 식품가공산업이 분석대상이며 육가공, 유가공, 채소가공(김치) 및 천일염가공 부문별 독립된 세부과제 형식으로 수행되었다. 세부과제별로 해당 가공산업의 전후방연계 분석을 통해서 당면문제를 도출하고, 발전전략을 제시하였다.

The industrial structure of the domestic solar salt processing industry has been rapidly changing due to the entry of large corporations into the processing industry and distribution market after solar salt was acknowledged as a food in 2008. However, as most policies and policy projects center around salt farms, the industrial structure of the solar salt processing industry has not advanced from an industrial structure centered around low value-adding businesses. The annual production of domestic solar salt is at approximately 300,000 ton level with the Jeon-nam province region taking up 85% (62% from Sinan-gun) of total production, thus making the solar salt processing industry a regional specialty industry. The country's total annual demand and supply of salt is approximately 3.2~3.5 million tons, and the ratio of domestic salt and imported one is 15% and 85% respectively. The number of domestic solar salt processing companies is estimated to be not more than 25 companies, and more than 90% of them are located in the Jeon-nam province region. The size of the market for solar salt in 2010 is estimated to be around 30 billion won on sales basis (excluding simple processing). On the basis of processing type, the proportion of 1st processing is 56.3%, 2nd processing is 40.8% and 3rd processing is 2.9%. Noticeable characteristics of the solar salt processing industry is that the industrial structure is heavily focused on 1st and 2nd processing and thus the proportion of 3rd processing business is very low. The competition structure in the production sector is typically an oligopoly type in terms of market share but it is very similar to a perfect competition structure in the distribution market. The result of research revealed that the procurement of raw materials in the solar salt processing industry is highly unstable. More than 70% of total raw materials procured by all processing companies are secured through an unstable procurement method. Overall, the production structure of the industry is small in scale in most indices compared to other industries. And because stable and fixed buyers are not secured and small and medium companies have low market control and negotiation power as a result, the industry has an unstable sales structure and a complicated distribution structure for solar salt processed products. As to consumers' preference for solar salt vs. machine processed salt and domestic solar salt products vs. imported one, preferences for solar salt and domestic solar salt products were absolutely high. There were many reasons for high preference for domestic solar salt products, but the most important reason was the confidence on the safety of domestic products. The solar salt processing industry has various pending issues as follows: low value-adding production structure focused on small-scale 1st processing, unstable raw materials procurement structure, complicated distribution structure with difficulty in market exploration by processing companies themselves, low market control and negotiation power of processing companies, low R&D investment level and insufficient systems in management and utilization areas, insufficient interest and support policy-wise on high value-adding solar salt processing industry and difficulty in securing superior-quality solar salt. The demand for solar salt is expected to increase continuously in the future because the demand for salt for household use and food processing will be rapidly substituted by solar salt processed products and because the scope of product development will be expanded to facilitate the development of high value-added processed solar salt products that will be used not only as food but also for medical or supplementary treatment purposes. Under such circumstances, it is judged to be desirable that the vision and objective of the solar salt processing industry have to be largely set on the fostering of solar salt processing industry as a high value-adding, globally reputable export industry. The basic direction and an implementation strategy to accomplish the vision and objective will have to include the following actions: restructuring from the existing low value-adding industrial structure to a high value-adding industrial structure focused on 2nd and 3rd processing sectors; fostering of the industry as an export industry based on globally reputable processed products; expansion of R&D investment and pertinent system arrangement; establishment of a production base for high quality, safe solar salts; and improvement of related laws and systems together with policy support.

Researchers: Chang-Gon Jeon; Hong-Geun Ha E-mail address: cgjeon@krei.re.kr