Cheonan city government is making every effort to boost the local food industry, e.g., hosting the Wellbeing Food Expo in 2009, development of various localized food, etc. The purpose of this study is to present development strategies and prepare long-term development plans for continuous development of the food industry in Cheonan. In particular, one of the key tasks is the development of food industry has to be affilliated to development of agriculture in Cheonan.
The farmland area in Cheonan is 15,237 ha which is 0.88% of the nationwide farmland in Korea. The number of farming households is 13,408 which is 6.31% of the number of entire households in Cheonan and 1.12% of the entire farming households in Korea. Production of food crops, vegetables and fruits in Cheonan is 45,659 tons, 31.170 tons and 53,927 tons, respectively, which is 0.75%, 0.33 and 1.87% of the nationwide production, respectively. Farm products in Cheonan are characterized by relatively small scale production of vegetable, but relatively large scale production of fruits. The number of food manufacturers in Cheonan is 570 and the number of employees is 5,317, which is 1.04% and 1.94% of the nationwide numbers, respectively. The number of restaurants in Cheonan is 7,031 and the number of employees is 18,473, which is 1.22% and 1.17% of the nationwide numbers, respectively.
Since most of medium-scale food producers in operation in Cheonan use imported agro-products as raw material or a large amount of relatively cheap agro-products, it is hard to connect them with agricultural production in Cheonan. On the other hand, most of localized principal products, e.g., alcohols, chilly pastes and the like are produced with local agro-products, but they are produced by small-scale food producers which have a small influence on local farming. Some of producers' organizations, e.g., Nonghyup(Agricultural Cooperatives), have a plan for restaurant business, but are not relatively highly interested in food production business. Response of environment-friendly product producers' organizations for provision of school lunch is not systematic, so that the system of environment-friendly school lunch prepared with local agro-products is not settled yet.
The future of development of food industry in Cheonan is promising, in light that Cheonan is an important place for transportation located near to the capital area, a balanced region of urban and rural districts, abundant local food resources, etc. In particular, with efficient response to changing conditions, e.g., continuous growth of the food market, more demand for healthy foods for wellbeing, spreading environment-friendly diet, etc., Cheonan has a potential that the food industry of Cheonan will be a new growth power for Cheonan. For developing the food industry in Cheonan, it is necessary to set a strategic objective, e.g., organizing a safe food supply system, spreading localized food and diet, cooperating with agricultural, business and industrial sectors in combination, and developing Cheonan as a noted place for healthy food, thus to embody the strategy step by step by means of long-term plans.
For developing the food industry in Cheonan, it is necessary to establish and operate a local food center which will lead provision of school lunch, local food, and development of the localized food industry. It is necessary to host the International Healthy Food for Wellbeing Expo to develop Cheonan as a famous healthy food place for wellbeing and to establish a World Ethnic Food Park to create a landmark symbolizing Cheonan's food industry. It is necessary to raise the added values of fruits produced too much by means of joint projects for aging distilled fruit alcohols and to develop various localized foods. Research and development has to be encouraged for localized food for continuous development of the food industry in Cheonan. It is necessary to expand the growth basis for the food industry in Cheonan by creating a large scale food industry complex. The effect of top branded local food of Cheonan will be achieved by promoting the special district project for the Byungchun Soondae Cluster and the Healthy Hodoo(Walnut) for Wellbeing project. It is predicted that the cost of 90.8 billion won will be needed for 10 years from 2011 for boosting the food industry as described above.


Researchers: Gouk Seung-Yong, Choi Ji-Hyeon, Cho So-Hyun and Kang Hye-Jung
Research period: 2010. 4. - 2011. 1.
E-mail address: gouksy@krei.re.kr