●Because fruit trees are perennials, it is difficult to change the kinds of crops. Moreover, due to the domestic fruit production system centered on the six fruits, most producers grow crops with relatively high prices and easy cultivation techniques.
●The system for learning techniques for cultivating new products and varieties is inadequate, there is uncertainty about farm household income, and sales channels are insufficient.
●Due to farmers' fixed idea about the production of large fruits and early shipment, the quality gap among farms is widening.
●The concentration on certain varieties leads to farm work in the same period of time, which results in labor shortage and difficulty in coordinating shipping dates.
▶The processing side has the following problems.
●Only a small number of processing companies use domestic fruits as ingredients, and their scale is also small.
●Domestic processed fruit products have higher unit prices and lower quality competitiveness than imported ones.
●Despite the increasing demand for processed products, the development of processed fruit products is inadequate.
Countermeasures of the Fruit Industry
▶We proposed the production and shipment sector's countermeasures to change the fruit production and shipment structure according to the five characteristics of fruit consumption trends, and countermeasures to increase consumption of domestic fruits.
▶The production and shipment sector's short-term countermeasures are to discuss
shipping dates in consideration of quality to produce sweeter fruits, develop products in small packets, and increase the supply of convenient fresh fruit products and fruit vending machines.
▶The sector's medium- and long-term countermeasures are to expand the existing production system focused on the six fruits to other fruits in order to diversify products and varieties; and to enable year-round supply by cultivating various varieties by harvest time even in one product. Appropriate conditions should be created, including developing diverse processed products, increasing exports, and separating production systems by consumption uses.
▶Also, it is necessary to develop and disseminate varieties suitable for consumption trends, and secure stable sales channels. To reduce uncertainty due to the cultivation of new varieties, the central and local governments should move up the time when production is possible by creating disease-free, high-quality sapling complexes and supplying 3- to 5-year-old saplings, provide support during a no-profit period, and lay the foundation for the organizing of producing areas and for integrated marketing.
▶To increase stagnant fruit consumption, it is required to boost consumption by using self-help funds, promote promising varieties, introduce boxes by variety, and increase young people's consumption of fruits. Particularly, if fruits are supplied nationwide for school meals and snacks targeting children and adolescents whose intake of fruits is lower than the recommended requirements, potential consumers will be established, and downstream industries will expand, which can lead to the sustainable fruit industry.
▶By product, as ways to alleviate the unstable supply and demand of apples through optimum production, the following were suggested: closing orchards on unsuitable land and supporting planting substitute fruit trees. It is needed to expand a system for producing small and medium-sized fruits according to the trend of small packets, and induce dispersed shipment in order to diversify varieties and prevent oversupply.
▶As for pears, it is necessary to prevent low quality and long-term slowdown in consumption due to shipment control for the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day)
season by diffusing pear varieties for Chuseok and cultivating diverse varieties with different maturation periods. To promote domestic consumption, it is required to develop sweeter small and medium-sized varieties and pear varieties to eat unpeeled for convenience, and to make efforts for promotion and marketing.
▶For mandarins, it is needed to enhance sweetness by using the soil mulch (Tyvek) in the short term, and to replace existing varieties with sweeter ones in the long term.
As demand for green mandarins has grown recently, if measures for safety regarding pesticide residues etc. are prepared, controlling mandarin production and increasing farm household income can be expected.
▶Quality management is required to produce grapes with low acidity and high sweetness in the short term. In the long term, it is necessary to replace Campbell early with European varieties, including Shine Muscat, in response to sweeter imported grapes that are eaten unpeeled. However, it is needed to consider preserving part of farm household income in a no-profit period in case of variety replacement.
●According to an analysis of the profitability of a farm that replaces Campbell early with Shine Muscat, income is generated from the third year after the replacement, and the Campbell early farm's expected accumulated income becomes higher only from the fifth year after the replacement.
Researchers: Ji Inbae, Kim Hyunjoong, Kim Wontae, and Seo Gangcheol E-mail address: jiinbae@krei.re.kr
Background of Research
In Korea, the demand for companion animals is increasing due to changes in social structure, such as the nuclear family and the increase in the number of single-person households, and the size of related industries is growing rapidly. Nevertheless, the issue of animal welfare continues to be pointed out, and the management and support systems of related industries are insufficient, which impedes the healthy development of the industries. Therefore, this study suggests ways to diagnose the problems of the animal breeding and related industries that the existing animal protection and welfare policy does not cover and to protect and cultivate the industries through their prospects.
Method of Research
In order to understand the status of the companion animal industry, we reviewed the press releases and research reports on the related industries and gathered statistics of Statistics Korea and the Korean Agriculture Ministry. A survey was conducted on 2,000 people in order to investigate the present situation of the companion animal breeding in Korea, actual use of the service, and public perception of companion animals.
The Bass diffusion model was used to forecast the companion animal breeding