Research Background
Although export of agricultural food products has grown impressively and become the foundation to develop the agricultural export industrialization, there is the current issue of difficulties of obtaining the stable and continuous export volume; lack of linking of processed food products, which are the key export items, with agriculture and inadequate support system; and deepening dependency on export to specific markets. Therefore, this study aimed to diagnose the current problems and status of agricultural product export and analyze the change of worldwide environment and then to present the mid-to-long term policy to seek export promotion based on the results of the analysis.

Research Method
The study collected and analyzed the agricultural food product export related documents and reviewed the preceding studies. To observe the real condition of agricultural food product export, 103 horticulture production complexes and 52 processed food exporters were surveyed. Euromonitor International (Asia), an international consulting company, was contracted to conduct the market trend and future prediction of agricultural food product market in China. Methodologies such as the time series analysis, export supply response function, correlation analysis, CRk, Herfindahal Index, etc. were used for the analysis of impact of domestic price and foreign currency exchange rate change on export of agricultural food product.

Research Result and Implication
Setting up the ground for attaining the stable and continuous export volume, focused cultivation of export oriented items and market expansion through diversification of exported countries are needed to solve the current problems of agricultural food product export. The programs needed for that would be, first, the development of the dedicated export complex to attain the stable export volume. To establish a dedicated export complex program, it is recommended to begin with a test project and then gradually increasing the target items. The policy can be continuously operated only when it has the incentives for the farmers of the items featured by the export dedicated complex to have the stable income level. The items offered by the export dedicated complex should be designated to be the subjects of government-run import insurance system to help stabilizing the producers' income from export. Moreover, reintroduction of price stabilizing insurance system, which compensates some of sales price when the domestic price suddenly increases after the export contract should be considered and additional export logics expense assistance and partial expense assistance for purchasing the fuel oil or seed should be reviewed. However, the priority of government assistance should be set with regard to government budgetary limitation and fairness to farmers who do not export so that the most important measures will be adopted first.
Second, There should be measures to strengthen the linking of processed food product exports and agriculture as well as to promote exports. To increase the domestic content of the processed food products, measures such as expansion of additional assistance of export logistics expenses of exporters using the domestic raw materials, preferred allocation of outstanding agricultural food product purchase assistance fund, tax incentive for farmers under contract with Korean producers and designation of exporter for a specific volume are needed. Moreover, the current program of processed food product export assistance needs to be improved and a new assistance program needs to be developed. The infrastructure assistance instead of direct assistance is needed.
Third, a strategy of entering the Chinese market is needed to not only expand the export of agricultural food products but also mitigate dependency on export to a specific country. Although China is the world’s largest consumption market, it is an ‘isolatedly fragmented market’ which has different income level and consumption inclination according to region. As such, it is more important than anything to segment the market and select the target market then develop the export strategy by reviewing the market trend, forecast and other information. Since export of fresh agricultural food products is very limited in China because of the country’s adoption of quarantine system, it is recommended that the expansion of export to China should be centered around the processed food products. To improve the accessibility of Chinese consumers to Korean agricultural food products, the logistics and distribution networks in China are needed. Moreover, there is high level of non-tariff trad barrier such as the demand for sanitation certificate during customs clearance of imported food products, excessive quarantine criteria and sanitation permit of health (functional) foods, and it hinders the expansion of export to China. Therefore, Korean Government should discuss such matters with Chinese Government to overcome the problems promptly.


Researchers: Ki-Hwan Park, Kyung-Phil Kim, Byoung-Hoon Lee and Seong-Yun Heo
Research period: 2013. 7. - 2013. 12.
E-mail address: kihwan@krei.re.kr