An Empirical Study on the Use of Trade Insurance by Korea Agricultural and Marine Products Trading Companies

한국 농수산물 수출업체의 무역보험상품 이용에 관한 실증분석

Export and import of food, agriculture, forestry, fishery products are suffering from low growth rate due to the European financial crisis, global recession, and Japan's 2012 export expansion following the aftermath of 2011 earthquake. Upon the signing and enactment of Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and the EU, agriculture and fishery product have become the center of attention. Agriculture and fishery was reported to be 80million dollars, 1.46% of total national export, in 2012. Starting from2000, South Korea's government began its effort to expand agriculture and fishery export and as a result, export has steadily increased despite decreased consumption led by global recession. K-Sure has started an insurance program with the purpose of promoting SME business's export. It protects SME business against risk arising from credit, emergency, bad debt, and domestic price increase. This study aims to evaluate the service quality of K-Sure's insurance program via surveying SME businesses in the agriculture and fishery industry. Also this study will identify key service factors for SME businesses and explore ways to expand SME exports of agriculture and fishery by analyzing consumer satisfaction index. Results indicated service product quality factor, service communication quality factor, and social quality factor was key to improving consumer satisfaction for SME businesses in agriculture and fishery industry. Service product quality factor had a negative effect on consumer satisfaction in term of variety and results indicated that service communication quality factor's responsiveness element had minimal impact on consumer satisfaction. Conversely, all elements for social quality factor had positive effects on consumer satisfaction. Thus, leading to the conclusion that improvements in service product quality factor and service communication quality factor will indeed increase consumer satisfaction.