The relatively high prices of domestic agricultural products are predicted to weaken their market competitiveness due to the extension of the agricultural market opening derived from trade agreements such as the DDA and FTAs. The tariff rate may not be kept as high as its current rate if the DDA is concluded, and the tariff rate on agricultural products shall be largely reduced if FTAs are concluded one after another. The purpose of this study was to suggest strategies for developing a brand promotion project as a way to enhance the competitiveness of domestic upland crops faced with changes in their market conditions.
Currently, the cultivated size of upland crops per farm household is smaller than 0.1ha in most cases, which is quite small. Therefore, It is necessary to enlarge the size of production area for their stable supply in terms of quantity and foster a representative brand for each main producing region. These days, consumers prefer safe and good quality agricultural products, and distributors are getting enlarged, specialized, and chained, thus resulting in the dramatic changes in the marketing situation of agricultural products. It is, therefore, indispensable to systematically produce, supply, and distribute various kinds of agricultural products. It is necessary to promote the differentiation of upland crops as specialty brands and secure competitiveness through economies of scale and specialization.
An SWOT analysis on upland crops indicates that the consumers have high reliability on domestic agricultural products. The efforts to make profits by developing various uses of upland crops have not been fully implemented in the past, and their marketing structure has been also weak. As a result, the marketing of upland crops has been susceptible to unfair distribution: the low-priced imported products could have been mixed and distributed together with domestic products. However, it is possible to convert the marketing of domestic agricultural products into a new growing industry through the increase of consumers’ interest in safe foods and the specialization of upland crops. On the other hand, more imported upland crops may penetrate into the domestic market as the market is getting more opened through FTAs, DDA, etc.
It is indispensable to enhance the quality of domestic upland crops through comprehensive management on every stage, including farming, harvesting and distribution stages, and develop good brands together with the fostering of management bodies of such brands. To foster specialty brands of upland crops, it is basically needed to have a capability to produce and distribute the upland crops of equal quality. It is required to unify varieties and standardize farming methods to secure and maintain equal high quality. A planned production system should be established concerning variety selection, soil and farm management, post-harvest management, commercialization, etc; contract farming should be obligated; own quality standards should be set; and an operating body for quality management should be organized.
To develop brands of upland crops, it is essential to organize an execution body of a proper size and extensively support every aspect of brand developing efforts. Producer bodies should be organized first in the places where properly scaled production is possible. This project should be carried out by introducing an integrated production, processing, and distribution system that can manage varieties selection, farming, storage, processing, standardization, classification, distribution, sales, publicity, and services.
For the successful branding of upland crops, it is indispensable to clearly set the roles of every participating body, including local governments, agricultural technology centers, producers, farmers’ cooperative associations, distributors, etc. The government should play the role of a fair supervisor of the market. The government should establish a production infrastructure for high-quality, safe agricultural products and an institutional system for safety management at the production stage; support facilities that will play the role of a distributor, such as an agricultural marketing center at the management stage after harvest; and manage and supervise whether standardized products are distributed in the market without any problem at the distribution stage.

Researchers: Sung, Myung-Hwan and Seung, Jun-Ho
Research period: 2007. 5 - 2007. 7
E-mail address: mhsung@krei.re.kr