North Korea sets about peeling South’s garlic

Posted on : 2007-02-09 15:00 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Joint project has begun at Gaesong industrial park

Some of South Korea’s garlic is now being peeled by North Korean hands.

On February 6 in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong (Kaesong), about 1,500 North Korean workers were busily peeling garlic. Every day, South Korean farmers send garlic to Gaeseong, and the peeled product returns to South Korea.

Also on this day, about 130 officials and businessmen from the two Koreas attended a ceremony for the official start of the joint garlic business.

Though this official launch ceremony occurred in early February, the joint production by South Korean firm San Gwa Deul Nongsusan and North Korea’s Jeonseong pharmaceutical research center started in October last year. The South Korean company called the program a "win-win" cooperation between the two Koreas.

Currently, pre-peeled garlic accounts for 80 percent of South Korea’s retail garlic market because consumers prefer the peeled garlic for convenience. While machines can peel garlic, they do not peel it as smoothly as do human hands. As a result, machine-peeled garlic will start to rot in about three days, whereas hand-peeled garlic stays fresh for about 20 days.

However, no workforce exists in South Korea to peel garlic; thus, peeled garlic from China dominates the South Korean market.

To resolve the situation, a local farmers’ group proposed allowing North Korean workers to peel garlic. The proposal involved the meeting of the South’s firm and the North’s research center, helped along by the South Korean civic group the Korean Sharing Movement.

For the peeling work, the South Korean company pays US$220 per ton of garlic to its North Korean counterpart. Jeonseong buys medicinal materials with the money earned from the joint garlic business.

The North Korean factory produces 20 tons of peeled garlic daily. Starting in May, the factory plans to double its production to 40 tons and increase the number of workers to 3,000.

Kang Jeong-jun, chair of Korea Garlic Producers Association, said, "To compete with Chinese garlic, we have to provide peeled garlic. This business is beneficial for both producers and consumers. Now, we have to figure out how to increase production capacity," Kang continued.

Hong Kyeong-pyo, chief executive of San Gwa Deul Nongsusan, said, "The North Korean side has complained about low pay for its workers, as each earns $43 per month." Hong also cited a complex quarantine process as another stumbling block to be faced, saying that the North Korea-peeled garlic faces the same import standards as does Chinese garlic.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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