신성장동력 발굴을 위한 원예·특작산업 발전 전략(2/2차연도)

Abstract

농업부문은 농가의 고령화, 농산물 시장개방 확대 등의 영향으로 지속적으로 위축되고 있으나, 화훼‧인삼‧녹차는 국민소득 향상, 건강에 대한 관심과 웰빙 트렌드 등의 소비패턴 변화, 고소득 작목이라는 인식 확산 등으로 2000년대 중후반까지 성장을 지속하였다. 더욱이 이들 품목은 수출이 크게 늘면서 수출산업화에도 적합한 품목으로 평가받았다. 이 때문에 화훼‧인삼‧녹차산업은 농업부문의 대표적인 성장산업으로서 많은 관심을 받아왔다.

이처럼 순조롭게 성장을 지속하였던 화훼‧인삼‧녹차산업은 최근 국제유가와 인건비 상승에 따른 경영비 증가, 경기침체에 의한 소비 부진, 자유무역협정(FTA) 협상 추진으로 인한 시장개방 확대와 수출경쟁 심화 등 대내외 환경이 급격히 변화하고 있다. 이로 인해 화훼‧인삼‧녹차의 재배면적이 최근 들어 감소 추세로 전환되는 등 산업의 위축 현상이 뚜렷하게 나타나고 있다. 이에 따라 이 연구는 화훼‧인삼‧녹차산업이 재도약하는 계기를 마련하고, 향후에도 이들 산업이 농업발전을 견인할 수 있는 새로운 동력산업 중의 하나로 구축될 수 있도록 발전 전략을 제시하고자 수행되었다.

Research Background Despite the downswing of agriculture, the floricultural, ginseng, and green tea industries have been continuously developed. They have also been regarded as the most profitable items because of the significant increase of export. Recently, however, the production of these industries has notably decreased due to the exacerbated domestic and global circumstances such as the recent increase of management cost, dwindling consumption, and sluggish export. Thus, for the resurgence of floricultural, ginseng, and green tea industries it is needed to suggest the development strategies based on the diagnosis of the current status and problems of each component (e.g., production, processing/distribution, consumption, import/export, and policy) in these industries. Through the establishment of the strategies, the floricultural, ginseng, and green tea industries should play a leading role as new growth engines for the development of agriculture.

Research Method In order to understand the basic statistical data regarding the floricultural, ginseng, and green tea industries, this study used the data including the resources and previous study data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The problems and the major issues in the current business were explored through hosting expert symposiums (6 times). The current status of production management was investigated based on the total of 1,345 farmers. In order to analyze the consumption patterns, the raw data from Statistics Korea was purchased and analyzed. The surveys were also carried out for domestic consumers (1,000 participants for floriculture, ginseng, and green tea respectively) and Japanese consumers (1,000 participants for floriculture and green tea respectively). Moreover, field surveys in the Netherlands, Colombia, China, and Hongkong were carried out to understand the advanced systems abroad and the current status of rival countries in export markets. For the prospect of the supply and demand for the medium and long-term period, the supply and demand models for flowering plants and green tea were developed. With regard to the consumption part, diverse models were employed, including the Habit Formation Model and Ordered logistic regression model.

Results and Discussion This study draws emerging problems and issues through empirical investigation of the current status and problems in each area of the floricultural industry and through the prospect of the supply and demand. Based on these results, this study suggests measures to address diverse problems. The final vision of the floricultural industry development is stable and constant development of floricultural industry. In order to achieve the vision, four basic directions are suggested: (1) development of production infrastructure for high quality and low cost, (2) establishment of advanced distribution system, (3) settlement of stable and assured consumption, and (4) preparation for the systems of export industrialization. Based on aforementioned basic directions, the detailed development strategies are established as follows. For the development of production infrastructure for high quality and low cost flowering plants, it is required to make the management of farms stable by converting it into low cost production system as well as by renovating the production facility. Moreover, the active adoption of the eco-friendly flower production certification system, MPS Certification, can reduce the environmental loads, leading to meeting consumer's needs. Also, understanding effects of production efficiency through data recording can reduce the cost. The establishment of an advanced distribution system for flowers can make the public markets play a leading role in the distribution system through developing hub wholesale markets for flowers. It can also be achieved by actively adopting a wet and cold distribution system. In addition, diverse dealing methods should be introduced to meet the changing environment of markets, and flower production certification system should also be prepared. The detailed developmental strategies for the settlement of stable and assured consumption include the implementation of flower education, the reinforcement of a place-of-origin indication system for imported flowers, and the introduction of the place-of-origin indication system for domestic flowers. Moreover, the consumers' trust can be established by opening easily accessible large-scale horticultural stores, prohibiting garland recycling, and encouraging the use of real flowers. The preparation for the systems of export industrialization can be achieved by introducing the designation system of a dedicated export complex which can secure the stable export volume, reducing the distribution costs, restoring the major export market share, diversifying the export markets, investigating the market thoroughly, and actively responding to the movement of FTA countries. On the ginseng industry, the current issues and challenges in each sector were derived through the surveys and analysis of the domestic ginseng industry. Based on the results, the development strategies were suggested. The development strategies to increase the competitiveness of the domestic ginseng industry were divided into four areas including cultivation/production, management, distribution of fresh ginseng and products, and export. With regard to the cultivation/production area, it is required to reinforce the institutional support for shortening the dormancy period of the existing farmland and for securing first planted fields. In order to shorten the dormancy period of the existing farmland, the active support from the government is needed, such as the use of soil sterilization and soil fumigants. The first planted fields should be secured by developing hills and marginal farms of main producing places. In order to secure professional workforce constantly, the personalized support for new participants and farming successors is required. To improve the management of ginseng farmers, the rationalization of purchase price of ginseng is needed. For example, on the products cultivated under the non-contract cultivation, the fair and transparent pricing system which reflects the supply and demand should be established. Moreover, in order to reduce the production cost for cultivating ginseng, the labor-intensive cultivation process should be replaced with mechanization to increase productivity. For the improvement of fresh ginseng distribution, it is required not only to secure the transparency, fairness, and openness of information for the fresh ginseng trade, but also to introduce and operate diverse transaction systems. The efficiency of price formation and product distribution should also be enhanced. In order to establish the reliability of ginseng product distribution, it is required to open the relevant information regarding the standardization of products and to establish the systems for the safety assurance and certification. At the same time, small and medium processing companies and 12 ginseng cooperatives should be organized and cooperate with one another first. For the export and in preparation for the liberalization of ginseng, first of all, the representative brands for export by the producer organizations, based on young ginseng, should be intensively developed and the differentiated strategies should be established as well. In addition, the role of the government should be strengthened to develop and expand the export markets for ginseng. It is also required to use the ongoing FTA between Korea and China strategically and to reach the reasonable conclusion. On the green tea industry, this study draws emerging problems and issues through empirical investigation of the current status and problems in each area of the industry and through the prospect of the supply and demand. Based on these results, this study suggests measure to address diverse problems. The developmental plan for the green tea industry is to improve industry competitiveness and establish consumption culture for the development of the industry. In order to achieve the plan, four basic directions are suggested: (1) improvement of the competitiveness in price and quality, (2) development of diverse products to meet consumer's needs and establishment of distribution system, (3) reinforcement of education and promotion and creation of tea culture, and (4) establishment of institutional support systems for developing the tea industry. Based on aforementioned basic directions, the detailed development strategies are established as follows. Firstly, as consumers are mainly interested in safety and price, more effort should be put into restoring consumer trust through the promotion or experience of tea gardens. Since the price issues are closely related to the conditions of production infrastructure, it is required to improve the tea gardens in slope area, of which production cost is high, to make them terraced or to secure flatland tea gardens. Also, the distribution of improved varieties of which quantity and quality is assured, should be expanded. Secondly, when it comes to the quality improvement and the development of a wide range of products to meet consumer's preferences, the aforementioned objectives should be pursued by cooperative processing plants and institutes in each main producing place. Moreover, it is suggested to develop popular brands and to open direct sales stores and tasting places in each main producing place in order to increase the accessibility of consumers. Thirdly, for the purpose of expanding the range of consumers, it is needed to support diverse activities to promote tea culture such as green tea class in collaboration with the Cooperative Tea-Producers Association and Korean Tea Masters Society. The demand of the tea leaves should be promoted through hosting World Tea Expo and encouraging the tea culture promotion activities. In particular, the main producing places should perform the role as a hub of the tea industry and culture in conjunction with the local food movement. Fourthly, in order to promote the systematic development of overall culture in the tea industry, the promotion plans including the tea industry and culture should be legislated to provide systematic support.

Researchers: Ki-Hwan Park, Chang-Gon Jeon, Moon-Ho Park, Seong-Yoon Heo, Dong-So Lee E-mail address: kihwan@krei.re.kr