This research has been performed as a long-term task to be carried out for 5 years under the objective of providing basic data necessary for research on the food industry and pertinent policies by deriving the current issues of the food industry, as well as upstream and downstream industries, to create high added values in agriculture. The processing industries of meat, milk, kimchi, and solar salt were selected as industries for study for the 3rd year of the research in consideration of the demand and supply of domestic agricultural products.
The total sales of the food industry in 2009 was approximately 130 trillion won and the food processing industry took up 47% of them. The total added value of the food industry was 36 trillion won and the food processing industry took up 60% of them, which means that the food processing industry has higher added value than sales compared to the food service industry. The proportion of the food industry in the national economy takes up approximately 3% on added value basis and 8% on the basis of the number of persons employed. On the other hand, the food processing industry takes up 2% of the national economy on added value basis and 1% on employment basis. The proportion of businesses with 1~9 employees takes up 93% of the food processing industry while the business entities with more than 100 employees takes up 0.6% only, which indicates that the industry has the characteristic of being small in scale. From the aspect of sales, the proportion of business entities with more than 100 employees takes up more than 50% whereas the proportion of business entities with less than 9 employees is 11% only.
We have conducted an analysis on changes in productivity, production efficiency and management in order to analyze the performance of major food processing industries (meat processing industry, milk processing industry and pickle industry). The results of a productivity analysis revealed that the changes in the cost of raw materials were the main cause of the changes in productivity as the changes in the productivity of the food industry were largely dependent on changes in distribution efficiency. Accordingly, stable supply of raw materials was required for the enhancement of productivity than anything else. As the production efficiency of large corporations, which have the characteristics of having a large market share and a large number of employees, turned out to be relatively higher, the method of enlarging the scale of small food manufacturing businesses through restructuring is required.
The results of a management analysis revealed that the following measures are needed to enhance the management performance of the food manufacturing industry: First, it is necessary to come up with a plan to expand the size of small business entities (in terms of asset size or the number of employees) to increase the effect of the economy of scale for the food manufacturing industry. Second, in addition to facility investment, it is necessary to provide variable input-related support to small- and medium-sized food manufacturers so that they can smoothly cope with the changing demand in the market. Third, it is also necessary to come up with joint advertisement programs to help small and medium businesses save production costs. Lastly, it will be necessary to come up with a continuous investment plan for research and development for the enhancement of management in the food manufacturing industry.
The total amount of shipping in the meat processing industry in 2009 is estimated at approximately 4 trillion 76 million won. Out of the amount, the proportion of business entities with less than 10 employees takes up 60%, which shows the small scale of the industrial structure. The meat processing industry has a market structure of an oligopoly as the market concentration ratio of top 3 corporations and next 7 corporations reaches as much as 30% and 43% respectively. The market size of the milk processing industry is 6 trillion 628.8 billion won and it maintains a representative oligopoly with the top 4 corporations taking an 80% market share alone.
The market size of the kimchi industry in 2009 was 825 billion won in terms of shipping price and 1 trillion won in terms of retail price. The size of kimchi manufacturers is small with an average of 12.6 employees per company. The market share of top 3 corporations in the kimchi market is not so high at 14.9%, but the packed kimchi market for households has an oligopoly structure as the market concentration ratio of large corporations is more than 70%. The number of domestic solar salt processing companies is not more than 25 with sales amount (excluding simple 1st processing) standing at around 30 billion won only, and the industry has an oligopoly market structure as the market share of top 3 corporations is 60%. The proportion of direct sales of meat processing companies at the production sites is as low as 25% with a low rate of purchasing based on production by contract, whereas the proportion of direct purchase of raw milk at production sites in the case of the milk processing industry, where business entities are well affiliated in general, reaches 40%. Analysis revealed that approximately over 70% of the raw materials for the processing of solar salt are procured under an unstable supply environment.
For the improvement of consumers' perception of meat-processed products, it is necessary to use diversified means of publicity, such as image advertisements, to present the results of scientific research on meat processed products and support the publicity for the products. In the case of dairy products, it is also necessary to consider a method to expand the consumption based on scientific research on raw milk nutrients and actively engage in publicity activities. Analysis results revealed that consumers are willing to pay higher price if the contents of protein and calcium increase in addition to fat content.
Meat processing companies, milk processing companies, kimchi manufacturers and solar salt processing companies are all faced with the following issues. First, they lack diversified production strategies such as a product differentiation strategy to overcome slowdown in consumption. Second, due to the shortage of connection with producers, they lack a system to stably supply raw materials in times of emergencies. Third, R&D investment for new product development and establishment of pertinent infrastructure are insufficient. Fourth, the pertinent laws and systems are not properly arranged for market stimulation.
As for strategic ways of reinforcing the linkage between the food processing industry and agriculture, it is necessary to have diversified forms of linkage reinforcement, such as expansion of contract-based cultivation and implementation of strategic partnership and business affiliation depending on the nature of items for the expansion of domestic raw materials in the food processing industry. Above all, since any increase in the price of raw materials affects the price of the final product, thus bringing in a stagnant market and putting a big burden on business management, continuous efforts are needed to build an organizational support system at production sites to facilitate stable supply of raw materials.
In order to expand the demand for processed food products made from domestic raw materials, it is necessary to develop high-quality, safe foods and expand government support for R&D in that cause. In the case of solar salt-processed products, building a sanitary supply base for solar salt will be the key to increasing added value and securing global competitiveness. In the case of meat-processed products, too, it will be possible to create demand and increase added value through continuous product development and promotion. As for kimchi, there is a need to actively nurture kimchi commodity markets in link with the globalization of Korean foods as an essential national food.
Government needs to enhance added value of the pertinent manufacturing industry through the improvement of laws and systems such as streamlining of the management of meat processed products and early legislation of salt management law.
There was a limit for the comparison and analysis of market structure of individual processing industries in this research due to the constraints of available data to use. Especially, there was a difficulty in identifying the market size and the number of companies involved due to the difference of industry classification method between the data from Statistics Korea and KFDA and the inconsistency of survey contents. It seems that systematic establishment of database for the statistics of food processing industry is urgently required for the development of research in the food industry in the future.

Researchers: Ji-Hyeon Choi, Chang-Gon Jeon, Yong-Sun Lee,
Jae Bong Chang, So-Hyun Cho
E-mail Address: jihchoi@krei.re.kr