The purpose of this research is to analyze recent production and distribution of environment-friendly agricultural products in Korea and other countries and to reflect changes in conditions in Korea and other countries to predict the market scale for environment-friendly agricultural products. The result of analysis will provide the basic data for decision making to environment-friendly agriculture policy makers, environment-friendly farm product producers, distributers and people who process those products.
For achieving the purpose of research, production of environment- friendly agricultural products was analyzed on the basis of the authentication result for environment-friendly agricultural products by the National Agricultural Product Quality Management Service of Korea. The target year for predicting the market scale of environment-friendly agricultural products was aimed to be 2020, considering decrease in the rate of increase in produced environment-friendly agricultural products and changes in the certification system for low-pesticide agricultural product abolished in 2016.
Since 2000, environment-friendly agricultural products have been produced 70% more every year with the aid of the positive policy to apply environment-friendly farming as a growth power for future agriculture. For recent 5 years, the rate of increase is slowed down but shows approximately 50% which is still high increase.
In 2009, for the certified area for environment-friendly agricultural products, organic cultivation and non-agricultural chemical cultivation showed an increase of 10.9% and 65.4%, respectively, but the area for low agricultural chemical cultivation which occupies the largest portion showed a decrease of 1.5%, so that an increase of only 15.8% is shown as compared to the number in 2008. Conversion of the authenticated area for low agricultural chemical cultivation to decrease is considered because there is less demand for products by low agricultural chemical cultivation due to changes in the certification system.
The portions of certified area for environment-friendly farming in all the area under cultivation were 0.1% in 2000, 2.7% in 2005 and 11.6% in 2009 which show the trend of continuous increase. The portions in the agricultural products for each of authentication step of producing them on the basis of 2009 are 0.8% for organic agricultural products, 4.1% for pesticide- free agricultural products and 6.8% for low-pesticide agricultural products, respectively.
The volume of forwarding to the market in each step of certification system for environment-friendly agricultural products on the basis of 2009 are 108,810 tons for organic agricultural products (4.6%), 879,930 tons for pesticide-free agricultural products (37.3%), and 1,369,034 tons for low- pesticide agricultural products (58.1%). The largest portion is for low agricultural chemical agricultural products. Authenticated items of environment-friendly agricultural products include 470,948 tons of grains (20.0%), 603,021 tons of fruits (25.6%) and 1,030,875 tons of vegetables (43.7%) which occupy the largest portion.
Portions of the authenticated area for environment-friendly farming in the whole farmland area in each province are 32.7% for Jeonnamdo and 13.3% for Gangwondo which is considered high, but 4.1% for Gyeonggido and 4.1% for Jejudo which is considered low. Therefore, it is shown that there is a significant difference among local autonomies depending on their interest in policy to encourage environment-friendly farming and positive promotion strategies thereof.
In 2009, it is predicted the market scale for environment-friendly agricultural products in Korea will increase by 6.9% as compared to 2008 and be 3 trillion and 411.7 billion won. The reason of slower increase than previous years in the market scale of environment-friendly agricultural products is because the authenticated volume of produced low agricultural chemical agricultural products is decreased as compared to that in 2008, and the overall price of environment-friendly agricultural products is relatively lower than in other years.
It is predicted that the market scale of environment-friendly agricultural products in 2010 will be 3 trillion and 650.6 billion won showing 7% increase as compared to the number in 2009. It is predicted that the market scale of environment-friendly agricultural products will continue to increase, but will start to decrease from 2016 when the authentication system for low agricultural chemical cultivation is abolished, recover to increase from 2018 and be 6 trillion and 600 billion won which is approximately 20% of all of the agricultural products in 2020.
Organic agricultural products are produced in approximately 35,000,000 ha in 154 countries as of 2008. The market distribution scale of organic food and beverages is presumed to be approximately 56 trillion won. Organic farming shows a continuously growing trend of 20% or so per annum since 2000 mainly in advanced countries, e.g., America and Europe, etc.
China shows an increase of 21.4% per annum since 1998 in terms of the area with the aid of positive green food strategy of the government, and it is presumed that the area for producing green food is approximately 11.8% of all area under cultivation in 2008. The market scale of green food is 41 trillion won with respect to the sales 17 times the number in 1996. The volume of exported green food in 2008 was 2 trillion and 739.8 billion won 35 times the number in 1997.
It is presumed that the authenticated volume of organic agricultural products in Japan includes overseas certification which is 97.3% of the entire certified organic agricultural products and is approximately 35.8 times more than domestic certification. The volume of certified processed organic food shows 8.5% increase per annum for domestic authentication, but overseas authentication shows 20.5% increase per annum to represent very high dependency on overseas certified organic food.
Recently, environment-friendly agricultural products show a continuous increase in production with consumers' interest in food safety and increased demand for environmental quality, and it is predicted that the market scale of environment-friendly agricultural products will become larger. It is predicted that the volume of imported organic agricultural products as raw materials for processed organic food will increase as well. Therefore, it is necessary to vitalize consumption and distribution of environment-friendly agricultural products and to prepare a proper countermeasures for coping with an increase in imported organic agricultural products.


Researchers: Kim Chang-Gil, Jeong Hak-Kyun, Jang Jeong-Kyung, and Kim Tae-Hoon
Research period: 2010. 10. - 2010. 12.
E-mail address: changgil@krei.re.kr