Chun-Su Seo, the governor of Hamyang county, said “Covid-19 prolongation has invoked the importance of health and immunity. So, this brought ginseng under the spotlight once more. With raising the confidence of wild ginseng, the Hamyang county government will export it to the global market to notice the excellence of wild ginseng.” In addition, he expressed his will about the ginseng industry and market. “ Lately there is no regulation about the quality specification of Wild Ginseng, which confuses both producers and consumers. As a solution, we will standardize the quality specification of Wild Ginseng to help improve farm income by expanding Wild Ginseng industrialization.”
Hamyang county is known for being the best producing area of ginseng from The Era Of The Three States almost 1500 years ago. There is a legend behind it as well. Qin Shi Huang, who built the first country in China, ordered Seobok to bring the elixir plant. And Seobok came to Hamyang for the elixir plant. This legend explains how the effectiveness of Hamyang’s Wild Ginseng was brought to fame.
Wild Ginseng requires at least 5 years to 20 years to harvest. It takes a lot of sincerity and devotion. Hamyang county started to cultivate Wild Ginseng in 2012 and they are putting efforts such as fostering experts of Wild Ginseng, developing processed Ginseng food, ETC. Lately, there are nearly 500 farms in Hamyang across 730Ha of land. Hamyang is the largest Korean Ginseng producing area that produces top quality products. Hamyang county developed an amazing department to manage Wild Ginseng in 2003 and focused on fostering the Wild Ginseng industry. And in 2006, they adopted a traceability system of Wild Ginseng for the first time in Korea to raise their confidence in it.
2021 Hamyang Wild Ginseng Expo had wrapped up its 31 day schedule successfully with their closing event on October 10th. There were a lot of difficulties in preparing for the 2021 Hamyang Wild Ginseng Expo. The regulatory level for social distancing has toughened because of the number of COVID-19 cases increasing every day.
Nebula, an antimicrobial system was installed at the entrance of the expo to strengthen and fortify public health safety. SungJin Techwin, the producer of Nebula, impressed the citizens and organizers for working as a health keeping hero and it gave a sense of safety.
Also, a total of 34 locations including the concert hall and showroom had entry points that logged every visitor through a QR scan or phone call. They measured every visitor’s temperature and installed 110 CCTV for securing the movement of the visitor. They had cleaned and disinfected the expo hall after every night throughout the expo. They strengthened the sanitary rules to ensure the safety of public health.
Various contents caught the visitors’ eyes. Hamyang Wild Ginseng Expo managed the exhibition hall, promotion hall, and sales hall to increase visitors’ understanding of the anti-aging market and increase Hamyang Ginseng’s competitiveness.
A conference regarding Ginseng and the anti-aging market took place during the expo. Known academies, associations, producers, and other famous experts not only from Korea but also from 4 countries including China and America attended. Over 1 million online and offline viewers attended the conference. Through four academic conferences, the participants shared study results related to anti-aging effects of Ginseng. It provided an opportunity for participating companies to exchange their business ideas. Therefore, the expo became a cornerstone for Ginseng and the anti-aging industry and gave a new vision for Wild Ginseng to be a new leading brand of the anti-aging industry.
During the expo, the Ginseng farmers from both inside and outside of Hamyang county could introduce their products actively at the Wild Ginseng Specialty Store and the produce distribution center. And this led to increased profits of 2.5 billion won. They certainly played the role of drive at this event.
Mr. Seo promised, “during this expo, we could promote the brand value of Hamyang, which aided in the sales of ginseng as well. I shall pour my endless effort to make Hamyang the best healing city in the world.”
Mattew Kwak
Asia Journal
