• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.6-6
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• 2022

Prolonged Russia-Ukraine war, and unstable situation of supply and demand of global crops including the COVID-19 pandemic have raised awareness regarding food crisis, and in addition to this situation, export restriction measures imposed by some countries have accelerated the rise in the prices. Since the Republic of Korea depends annual crop consumption (21.32 million tons) mostly on the imports (food self-sufficiency rate in 2020 was 45.8%, crop self-sufficiency rate was 20.2%), our main task is to stably secure food. Now we need to put focus on building capacity to secure stable food supply, and actively manage and respond to risks. To overcome this condition, the Korean government set robust food sovereignty as its policy task, and has been focusing on the policy capacity by providing financial and policy support in parallel. We need to implement mid- to long-term measures to strengthen food security as well as to ensure domestic price stability. While increasing the domestic capacity to supply food in the mid- to long-term perspective, we are implementing projects to bring in crops which are inevitable to be imported by private companies. Specifically, we are making efforts to expand infrastructure for the public reserve and domestic production of wheat and beans which have low self-sufficiency rate, and to secure food sovereignty by providing support to secure global crop supply chain to private companies. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to set a target for food self-sufficiency rate and prepare a policy to strengthen mid- to long-term food security by establishing a task force to strengthen mid- to long-term food security in the Ministry. Especially, although wheat is the second staple food, domestic wheat production and the foundation for the industry is poor. Compared to the wheat imports, domestic production of wheat is 30 thousand tons (self-sufficiency rate of 1%), leading to a vulnerable status against internal and external shocks. Through the establishment of the Wheat Industry Promotion Act (Feb. 2020) and the First Master Plan for Wheat Industry Promotion (Nov. 2020), the Korean government has developed a policy basis, and has been providing financial support in overall across the production, distribution and consumption process. In addition, the government established a production complex for Korean wheat and beans in order to supply affordable government-supplied commodities, provide education and consulting services, and create a high-quality stable production system, including facilities and equipment. We are also continuing to increase the public reserve for wheat and beans with the purpose of stable supply and demand as well as food security. The Korean government will establish and implement mid- to long-term measures to strengthen the foundation for domestic production across production, distribution and consumption process, and to stably secure global supply chain including through diversified import channels.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 1990

For the last several years, considerable criticism has been leveled against Korea's exchange rate management. While Korea was designated a currency manipulator by the U.S., domestically it is often complained that the won/dollar rate did not adequately reflect changes in Korea's export competitiveness and fluctuations in the exchange rates of major currencies. In view of this situation, Korea changed its exchange regime at the beginning of March this year from the dual currency basket system to a more flexible one, called a "market average rate regime". Under this new regime, the won rate is determined in the exchange market based upon the supply of and demand for foreign exchange and is allowed to freely fluctuate each day within a + 0.4 % range. This paper, first, seeks to evaluate Korea's exchange rate management under the dual basket regime of the 1980s, and then to construct an optimal currency basket for the won which could provide a proper indicator for exchange market intervention under the new market average rate regime. The analysis of fluctuations in the real effective exchange rate (REER) of the won indicates that the won rates in the 1980s failed not only to offset changes in relative prices between home and trading partner countries, but also to properly respond to variations in major exchange rates as further evidenced by sizable fluctuations in the nominal effective rates of the won. In other words, the currency basket regime which was adopted in 1980 for the stabilization of the REER of the won has not been operated properly, mainly because authorities often resorted to policy considerations in determining the won's rate. In the second part of the paper, an optimal currency basket for Korea is constructed, designed to minimize the fluctuations in the REER of the won without including policy considerations as a factor. It is recognized, however, that both domestic and foreign price data are not available immediately for the calculation of the REER. For this problem, the approach suggested by Lipschitz (1980) is followed, in which optimal weights for currencies in the basket are determined based upon the past correlation between price and exchange rates. When the optimal basket is applied to Korea since the mid-80s, it is found that the REER of the won could have been much more stable than it actually was. We also argue for the use of variable weights rather than fixed ones, which would be determined by the changing relationship between exchange rates and relative prices. The optimal basket, and the optimal basket exchange rate based on that basket, could provide an important medium- or long-term reference for proper exchange market intervention under the market average rate regime, together with other factors, such as developments in the current account balance and changes in productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.318-339
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• 1994

U.S. had given large amount of cotton to Korea as food aid program since 1945. This cotton aid had negative impact on cotton culture in Korean agriculture. Korean government used counterparts funds (sale proceeds of food aid) not for investment to agriculture sector, but for military budgets. And food aid on program type had influenced general economic policies, which neglected agricultural sector too. Anti-agricultural policy which was helped by U.S. food aid, had caused cotton cultivator an economic loss. So this economic loss had made many farmers abandon cotton culture. But in our times, cotton is cultivated for the purpose of domestic consumption in a few rural villages. The purposes of this study are 1) to analyze the process of spatial reduction of cotton culture since 1945 in regional contexts in Korea, and 2) to identify the function and meaning of cotton culture which does not pay off in agricultural region. Materials for acreage of cotton culture are acquired through the agricultural statistical year book(1952-1989) and census. To clarify the meanings of cotton culture, field survey are conducted in a rural village which is identified as only one where cotton was cultivated in 1993. In these contexts, this study has come to the following conclusions. In the period of under the rule of Japanese Imperialism (1910-1945), G. arboreum, species of cotton which was traditionally cultivated since 1364, had been driven out. And G. hirustun species, which is suitable for the production of highly qualified textile, has been hierarchically diffused by policy. In these period, regional structure of Korean agriculture was reorganized for the provision with food to Japan. Crops leading this dependent spatial structure were rice and cotton. So agricultural region, specialized with cotton, were distributed in the hinterland of the area which is specialized with rice. U.S. cotton aid to Korea began in 1947. U.S. took an interest in agricultural export because of her domestic surplus of cotton. Cotton aid is one mechanism by which U.S government developed agricultural market in recipient countries, Specially in the exchange rates, up-valuation of won to the U.S. dollars made domestic cotton more expensive than cotton imported, Production cost of domestic cotton is higher than Government's purchasing price of cotton which was also more expensive than price of cotton imported. Korean farmer could not help abandoning the cultivation of cotton, and this gave rise to spatial reduction of cotton culture. Spatially, cotton culture was abandoned in early stage of reduction in regions where stand at a disadvantage climatically, and in next stage in regions where other up-land crops which paid off in urban market, eg, fruits, could be cultivated. In the stage of extinction, cotton was cultivated only in area where G. hirustun species was originated in Korean peninsula. This region is not only suitable climatically for cotton culture, but is far away from urban market. Use of cotton produced is not for spinning, but for fillings of comforter. The main purpose of cotton culture in rural village is not for cotton yields, but for increase of production of seasame, which is grown together with cotton as mixed crops. Cotton product are used for domestic consumption and sold out to gin house. Though cotton culture is not paid off, farmer wanted to cultivate continuously for the cultural purpose, and they wanted the cotton culture promotion policy with the goverment subsidy.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.164-185
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• 1987

The Korean economy has been developed rapidly in the course of implementing the five year economic development plans since 1962. Accordingly the industrial and employment structure have been changed from the traditional agriculture to modem industrial economy. In the course of implementing export oriented industrialization policies, rural farm economy has been encountered labour shortage owing to rural farm population drain to urban areas, rural wage hike and pressure on farm operation costs, and possibility of farm productivity decrease. To cope with the above problems the Korean government has supplied farm machinery such as power tillers, tractors, transplanters, binders, combines, dryers and etc. by means of the favorable credit support and subsidies. The main objectives of this study are to identify the investment effects of farm mechanization such as B/C and Internal Rate of Return by machinery and operation patterns, changes of labour requirement per 10a for rice culture since 1965, partial farm budget of rice with and without mechanization, and estimation labour input with full mechanization. To achieve the objectives Saemaeul farm mechanization groups, common ownership and operation, and farms with private ownership and operation were surveyed mainly in Nonsan granary area, Chungnam province. The results of this study are as follows 1. The national average of labor input per 10a of paddy has decreased from 150.1Hr in 1965 to 87.2Hr in 1985 which showes 42% decrease of labour inputs. On the other hand the hours of labour input in Nonsan area have also decreased from 150.1Hr to 92.8Hr, 38% of that in 1965, during the same periods. 2. The possible labor saving hours per 10a of Paddy was estimated at 60 hours by substituting machine power for labor forces in the works of plowing, puddling, transplanting, harvesting and threshing, transporting and drying The labor savings were derived from 92.8 hours in 1986 deducting 30 hours of labor input with full mechanization in Nonsan area. 3. Social benefits of farm mechanization were estimated at 124,734won/10a including increment of rice (10%): 34,064won,labour saving: 65,800won,savings of conventional farm implements: 18,000 won and savings of animal power: 6,870won. 4. Rental charges by works prevailing in the area were 12,000won for land preparation, 15,000won for transplanting with seedlings, 19,500won for combine works and 6,000won for drying paddy. 5. Farm income per 10a of paddy with and without mechanization were amounted to 247,278won and 224,768won respectively. 6. Social rate of return of the machinery were estimated at more than 50% in all operation patterns. On the other hand internal rate of return of the machinery except tractors were also more than 50% but IRR of tractors by operation patterns were equivalent to 0 to 9%. From the view point of farmers financial status, private owner-operation of tractors is considered uneconomical. Tractor operation by Saemaeul mechanization groups would be economical considering the government subsidy, 40% of tractor price. 7. Farmers recommendations for the government that gained through field operation of farm machinery are to train maintenance technology for rural youth, to standardize the necessary parts of machinery, to implement price tag system, to intercede spare parts and provide marketing information to farmers by rural institutions as RDA,NACF,GUN office and FLIA.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

Stone has been used for various purposes, such as for building stones, megaliths, ornamental stones, hunting and grinding throughout history. The global stone production amounted to around 153 million tons in 2018 excluding quarry waste, up 0.8% on year. Of them, stone residues accounted for 71%. The worldwide stone trading decreased 1.5 million tons to 56.5 million tons in 2018. The average price of stone was 34.1 USD per square meter, down 2.5% from the previous year. It's down 7% when only considering trading between the world's top twelve exporters. But in the three leading countries, Italy, Greece and Brazil, the price saw a sharp increase. In 2018, stone imports and exports totaled 815 million square meters, raising over 20 billion USD of revenue. Imports were largely led by six countries: China, Italy, Turkey, India, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, from largest to smallest.) In terms of stone use per 1,000 population, it was 117 square meters in 2001, and it increased to 264 square meters in 2017 and 266 square meters in 2018. The volume more than doubled during the period, but it has been declining slightly in recent years. China, India, Saudi Arabia and Belgium were the only countries that the stone use per 1,000 population exceeded 1,000 square meters. The increase rate was steepest in China, India and the United States, from largest to smallest. The global stone production is likely to grow to 69.85 million tons by 2025, despite the global economic downturn.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2024

World stone production in 2021 stood at 162.5 million tons, up by 7.5 million tons, or 4.8 percent, compared to the previous year when the production came in at 155 million tons. Six top countries with the most of stone production were China, India, Turkey, Brazil, Iran and Italy and these six countries accounted for 72.8 percent of total production in the world. Stone exports stood at $21.68 billion in 2021, up by $2.3 billion from the previous year. Exports of raw materials and processed stones stood at 54.4 million tons, up by 2.98 million tons from the previous year. In terms of aggregate exports, exports of natural stones increased by $2.3 billion to $21.7 billion while exports of artificial stones rose $2.6 billion to $13.6 billion in 2021 compared to the previous year. The average price of stone (Code: 68.02) was up by $65.2 per ton to $794.82. The price of board, processed stone, an ingredient for building materials, increased by $3.52 per square meter to $42.96 per square meter. Recycling was always the problem as the volume of the total quarry was 333.5 million tons, of which only 28.8 percent were finished products and the remaining 71.2 percent were waste generated from stone extraction and processing. Korea's stone exports stood at $1.97 million in 2021, down 38.3 percent on year, while imports were up 8.6 percent to $758.9 million. Stone exports are expected to grow to 66.1 million tons in 2025, while usage is expected to reach 108.92 million tons, or 2 billion square meters.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.640-647
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• 2013

This study was conducted to provide exportation strategy by surveying on preference of Japanese consumers on cut chrysanthemum exported. The survey was conducted two times by a local survey company in Japan, and the surveys were conducted largely on chrysanthemums for casual flowers and the altar. After departmentalizing Japanese consumers per groups the result were analyzed through conjoint and cluster methods, flower colors and shape were used relatively higher rate for selection criteria of flowers in every group in the case of casual flowers. Group 1 comprised of 60 year-old housewives who reside in a small city with high school diploma and annual income less than 300 million yen, and group 2 of 40 year-old housewives who are small city residents with high school diplomas and annual income of 300 million yen show higher rate of use in flower shape than colors. Another group 3 whose members are 50 year-old housewives, small city residents with high school diplomas and annual income of 600 million yen showed higher rate of use colors than the shape for selection criteria of flowers. The consumption characteristics according to the ages of the consumers showed a pronounced tendency. The 40-50 year-old housewives preferred single flowers packed with other flowers, and the 60 year-old housewives double flowers packed with only chrysanthemums. In flower color, the 50-60 year-old housewives preferred white and yellow flowers, and the 40 year-old housewives pink and yellow flowers. Therefore, there are needs for development strategy of new products considering the consumption characteristics of flower shape and color according to the ages of consumer. After analyzing the chrysanthemums for altar by departmentalization of Japanese consumers, every group showed relative higher rate of use for flower shape for selection criteria of flowers. According to the analysis on the consumption characteristics, group 1 which is comprised of 30-40 year-old housewives who reside in small city with high school diplomas and income less than 300 million yen, and the group 2 of 20 year-old housewives who reside in small city with college diplomas and annual income less than 300 million yen. They are very sensitive to the price of the products while the group 3 of 50 year-old housewives who reside in small city with high school diplomas and annual income less than 300 million yen are insensitive to the price. The 30-50 year-old housewives preferred white and pink flowers, and the 20 year-old housewives yellow and pink flowers. In flower shape, the 50 year-old housewives preferred anemone shape, the 30-40 year-old housewives double shape, and the 20 year-old housewives pompon shapes. Therefore, the white, double flowers for the 30-40 year-old housewives and the yellow, pompon flowers for the 20 year-old housewives are needed to be created at the lowest cost, while the white, anemone flowers are needed to created at higher cost with high quality. In light of these results, it is considered that we should understand the types of purchasing products through consumption characteristics of Japanese consumers. Also we should plan, create market-oriented and consumer-oriented products, and should export them in order to expand more exportation.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2011

Modern enterprises should concentrate their efforts on continuous improvements in focusing their development in the core areas of business and to reduce their expenses and to enhance the quality of service for customers. The enterprises should focus on their core business while outsourcing the non-core areas of business to external specialists for the purpose of reducing cost. In South Korea, the enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in outsourcing their logistics function, especially in using IT technologies to the 3PL. The underlying reason for this trend is because the logistics costs of Korean businesses are much higher than that of other advanced countries. This higher logistic costs weakens the price competitiveness of Korean companies in the overseas export markets and even dampening the balance of international trade. Domestically, the higher logistics costs have the effect of raising prices in the local markets and thus affecting the local economy. Therefore a solution is urgently needed to save the logistics costs for the Korean companies in the interest of increasing national competitiveness. Outsourcing to the 3PL is becoming an attraction solution to this problem. Thanks to the increasing supply of professional logistics companies, many of the enterprises are switching to the Third Party Logistics. Nevertheless the enterprises do not yet utilize the integrated third-party logistics services on a full scale. This study analyzes present conditions and problems of the domestic third-party logistics market and suggests directions for future development. To solve the problems in the domestic third-party logistics market, four actions are recommended. First there should be new supporting policies in the laws and regulations and a system for small and medium sized companies to grow. Solutions to structural problems such as abnormal multilevel merchandising, illegal operation of private cars, and freight dumping should be implemented concurrently. Furthermore, standards for new companies entry into the market should be enhanced to allow only the competitive distribution companies to enter the market. Second, development of variety of educational programs is needed through establishing human-resource development system and specialized formal educational institution focused on this market. Third, the third party distribution companies, which seek long-term relationships with the owners of goods, should endeavor to strengthen their communications capability. Fourth, adoption of high-tech distribution system and the advent of U-Logistics, making use of RFID is urgent. This study has the limitation of objectivity because it does not include various comparative case studies about companies relating to the Third Party Logistics and domestic franchise companies. However, this study is significant to the extent that it analyzes the general present conditions and the problems of domestic Third Party Logistics and suggests recommendations for revitalization of Third Party Logistics. For future studies, analyzing the successful cases of international third party logistics companies' empirical data and studying the application into domestic franchise companies would improve the objectivity of the results. This would assist the domestic third party logistics companies not only to perform excellent domestic logistics function but also to enter into the global market for international logistics.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.69-91
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• 1990

A major change in tariff rates was made in January 1989 in Korea. The benchmark tariff rate, which applies to about two thirds of all commodity items, was lowered to 15 percent from 20 percent. In addition, the variation in tariff rates among different types of commodities was reduced. This paper examines the economic impact of the tariff reform using a multisectoral general equilibrium model of the Korean economy which was introduced by Lee and Chang(1988), and by Lee(1988). More specifically, this paper attempts to find the changes in imports, exports, domestic production, consumption, prices, and employment in 31 different sectors of the economy induced by the reform in tariff rates. The policy simulations are made according to three different methods. First, tariff changes in industries are calculated strictly according to the change in legal tariff rates, which tend to over-estimate the size of the tariff reduction given the tariff-drawback system and tariff exemption applied to various import items. Second, tariff changes in industries are obtained by dividing the estimated tariff revenues of each industry by the estimated imports for that industry, which are often called actual tariff rates. According to the first method, the import-weighted average tariff rate is lowered from 15.2% to 10.2%, while the second method changes the average tariff rate from 6.2% to 4.2%. In the third method, the tariff-drawback system is internalized in the model. This paper reports the results of the policy simulation according to all three methods, comparing them with one another. It is argued that the second method yields the most realistic estimate of the changes in macro-economic variables, while the third method is useful in delineating the differences in impact across industries. The findings, according to the second method, show that the tariff reform induces more imports in most sectors. Garments, leather products, and wood products are those industries in which imports increase by more than 5 percent. On the other hand, imports in agricultural, mining and service sectors are least affected. Domestic production increases in all sectors except the following: leather products, non-metalic products, chemicals, paper and paper products, and wood-product industries. The increase in production and employment is largest in export industries, followed by service industries. An impact on macroeconomic variables is also simulated. The tariff reform increases nominal GNP by 0.26 percent, lowers the consumer price index by 0.49 percent, increases employment by 0.24 percent, and worsens the trade balance by 480 million US dollars, through a rise in exports of 540 million US dollars and a rise in imports of 1.02 billion US dollars.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.69-96
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• 1991

Economic circumstances of enterprise began to change after a series of democratization measures in 1987. Accompanied with it, competitive advantage of enterprise began to change as well. By that time Korean enterprises had a competitive advantage based on low wages of labor. Abrupt and steady upsurge in wage, however, weakened competitive advantage based on low wages, upward revaluation of won currency caused by surplus in BOP strengthened upward trend in price increase of export products. An urgent problem in Korea economy is, therefore, to find 'new' competitive advantage. For the time being preserving competitiveness based on cost advantage must inevitably remain our basic strategy in industrial policy. While cost advantage in the past referred to low wage level, this cost advantage must have foundation on the improvment in producing technology, which will increase labor productivity and decrease unit cost of products. Besides, other measure to improve competitiveness can be considered such as increasing the extent of production automation, self-development of new products, and spread and strengthening subcontracting system among various enterprises. In this paper we tried to perceive how subcontracting system as a form of intercompany division of labor operates and to which direction this system proceeds responding to the recent changes in economic circumstances. Speaking more concretly, we tried to perceive how large the gap of bargaining power between mother-company and subcontracting company is and how effectively subcontracting company's technical power contributes to mother-company. Facing up to weakeening of competitiveness, how stably is the partnership between mother-company and subcontracting company established and what measures are being prepared to retore the weakened competitiveness. In conclusion the result of investigation through the questionaire on subcontracting system is positive, from which we can infer the optimistic view of restoring Korean economy's competitiveness.