농산물 유통체계의 국제비교분석과 유통정책 개선 방향(1/2차년도)

Abstract

한국의 농산물 유통은 1990년대 이후 현재까지 단기간에 현대화된 산지유통센터(APC)와 공영도매시장, 대형유통업체, 도매물류센터, 직거래 시설 등 획기적인 하드웨어 기반을 갖추고, 도매시장 중심의 농산물 수집·분산체계 구축과 산지·대형유통업체 간 직거래 등 경로를 다양화하며 발전해 왔다. 그러나 여전히 한국농업의 핵심 문제로 농산물 유통의 비효율성과 이로 인한 가격 불안정성이 지적되고 있으며, 단편적인 사례 연구에 기대 상대적으로 부족한 분야에 정책적 관심과 예산 투자가 집중되고 있다.

이 연구는 한국을 비롯한 일본, 미국, 유럽, 중국을 대상으로 농산물 산지·도매·소매유통, 협동조합유통, 직거래, 거래제도 등에 대하여 역사적인 동인과 유통의 현상 및 성립조건 등의 비교를 통해 이를 분석적으로 제시하고자 노력하였다. 역사적으로 우리나라의 공동판매 비율이 유럽이나 일본에 비해 낮은 이유는 농가들이 공동판매에 제도적 또는 의무적으로 참여할 수 있도록 유인하는 시스템이 부족했기 때문이다. 농가의 다양한 수요를 반영하고, 생산자 조직의 공동판매체제에 농민들을 적극 유인할 필요가 있으며, 전문화·규모화된 연합판매방식의 기업적 마케팅을 추구해야 한다.

본 연구는 1차년도에는 생산자조직화를 비롯한 각국의 농산물 산지유통체계를 중심으로 한·중·일 공동연구를 수행하였다.

Background Distribution of agricultural products in Korea has been significantly transformed by the important environmental changes at home and abroad and government’s adaptation policies such as establishment of public wholesale markets and implementation of auction transactions, structural improvement measures with 42 trillion won for distribution service market due to free trade of agricultural products, establishment of agricultural products processing centers nationwide, and revitalization of economic projects led by cooperatives. In particular, the government promotes diversification of distribution channels and competition between them with the master plan for improving distribution (May, 2013). As mentioned above, the hardware infrastructure of agricultural distribution has been established, including modernized agricultural products processing centers and public wholesale markets in producing, wholesale and retail areas, large-scale distributors, wholesale logistics centers, and direct transaction facilities, and distribution channels have diversified through wholesale-oriented large-scale collection and distribution of agricultural products and direct transactions between producers and large-scale distributors since the 1990s. In addition, the average distribution margin is 44%, which is lower than most advanced countries. Nonetheless, the inefficiency of distribution of agricultural products and the price instability are pointed out as the key problems of Korean agriculture, and policy and budget investment are centered to solve the issues. The distribution of agricultural products can not be the same according to the establishment conditions such as historical background of each country and region, socio-economic situations, and the level of promoted policies. Therefore, this study aims to present the results through comparing the agricultural distribution in production areas, wholesale and retail markets, cooperatives and farmers markets and establishment conditions including transaction systems of countries.

Methodology This study is the first year study for comparative analysis of the distribution systems for agricultural products in major countries. This report includes comparison of joint sales and calculation systems by producer organizations, and direct transactions between producers and consumers. Moreover, another comparative analysis is made of marketing systems and transactions manners by producer organizations in the wholesale markets and retail distribution organizations. Comparison analysis is centered around fruits and vegetables among Japan, China, the US and European countries including France, Italy and the Netherlands. For comparative analysis of marketing systems in producing areas, literature and data were examined in respect to the agricultural distribution systems of each country. Government’s official statistics data were also analyzed. For obtaining data about distribution margins, and transaction systems for major items, researchers visited the countries, and joint research between Korea, Japan and China was facilitated to share data and methodologies of each country.

Result and Implications Korean distribution channels for agricultural products are composed of cooperatives in production areas, marketing by local distributors, wholesale markets oriented distribution, and large-scale distributors. Distribution channels for agricultural products in each country are compared and described below in terms of their structure, local marketing systems and historical background. In Japan, while the distribution of agricultural products is centered around wholesale markets, its structure includes organizations for local marketing and wholesale markets as an organization for collecting and distributing a large volume of agricultural products for consumers to respond to the demand for agricultural products from urban areas since the Japanese imperial period. China laid emphasis on the industrialization policy of agriculture for increasing production through the ‘Chaeramja Process’ (vegetable cart project) in the production sector, and supporting leading enterprises effectively to collect and distribute products of small-scale farmers in the distribution sector; and policies for constructing nationwide wholesale markets. The effort of China results in a great success in a short term. Distribution of agricultural products in Europe is essentially based on the cooperative movement, and marketing is unified by the cooperatives to enhance transaction negotiation against middlemen’s mighty power. This system still works. Because distribution of fruits and vegetables in the US is based on large-scale farmers, quite different from Korea, Japan, China, and even European countries, local distribution centered around cooperatives is thus relatively not great, and private distributors are local distributors. Comparison of joint marketing and joint calculation methods by producer organizations shows cooperatives just collect and market agricultural products in the wholesale markets under the name of the farmers as producers in most cases while joint marketing through the cooperatives accounts for 50% in Korea. Payment is made on an individual farmer basis, not through the joint calculation, implying limited application of a true joint marketing system. In comparison, Japan has performed joint sorting and joint calculation since the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, more than 80 and 90% of farmers carry out joint marketing through cooperatives to have strong influence, that is, transactions negotiation capability with wholesale dealers and large-scale distributors near to consumers. In Europe, vegetables are sold to middlemen through auctions in the unified marketing channel of local cooperatives. For fruits, they employ specialized marketing strategies of large scale through cooperative enterprises, to implement strong negotiation capability and economies of scale. The reason for lower share of joint marketing in Korea than European countries or Japan is because there has not been a good system for encouraging farmers to participate in joint marketing through regulations or on a compulsory basis by the government. Therefore, it is necessary positively to employ the refined and advanced joint calculation scheme of Japan to reflect the demand from various farmers and encourage them to participate in the joint marketing system by producer’s organizations. Furthermore, it is also necessary not to adopt joint marketing based on small-scale local Nonghyup, and seek specialized and large enterprise-scale marketing of union-type selling. The comparison of marketing systems for selling agricultural products to consumers by the marketing organizations in producing areas shows joint marketing led by cooperatives is centered mainly around wholesale markets in Japan. While selling agricultural products to consumers in areas centered around wholesale markets can enhance negotiation capability through unified marketing, another advantage includes fast and safe payment, easy administration process, marketing the whole volume desired by farmers, and easiness to secure sales channels in the case of excessive production. Meanwhile, in Korea, local producer organizations supply their products to large-scale retail buyers as individual vendors according to the strategy for purchasing agricultural products by large-scale retail distributors to result in significantly lower capability of transactions negotiation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a joint sales system for ensuring the capability of transactions negotiations. In particular, it is also necessary to ensure the capability of transactions negotiations through centralized marketing, and seek a transaction method to guarantee stable transaction prices and transaction volume, for example, reserved transactions and reserved marketing better for producer organizations. Moreover, it is further necessary to benchmark the scheme of enterprise-type European cooperatives to establish a strategy for creating and commercializing brands of specialized large-scale enterprises, and marketing the products. For direct transactions of agricultural products, Japan has implemented various strategies for vitalizing local economy and increasing farmer’s income to have multi-dimensional aims including Jisanjiso, Local Food and vitalized agri-tourism. The US government also positively supports direct transactions of agricultural products through regulations and policies from the perspective of distribution of agricultural products, rural development and food support for vulnerable people. Direct transactions of agricultural products in the US and European countries have developed to further expand the sales channels for small-scale farmers, which can be hardly addressed just with distribution for mainstream farmers, vitalize local economy, promote exchange between rural and urban areas, and ensure accessibility of consumers to healthy food. It is better to implement direct transactions of agricultural products focusing on mutual benefits between rural and urban areas, development of local agriculture, promotion of exchange between producers and consumers, ensuring sales channels for aging and small-scale farmers in addition to increasing benefits of farmers and consumers in terms of prices and quality.

Researchers: Kim Byungryul, Jeon Changgon, Park Seongjin, Chai Sanghyen Research period: 2016. 1. ~ 2016. 12. E-mail address: brkim@krei.re.kr