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A website called Jincheon Mall (jcmall.net) that sells Saenggeo Jincheon rice and other local specialties had to suspend operations temporarily because of an avalanche of orders. (Jincheon Mall screenshot)

After Afghans who worked for the South Korean government were airlifted to Korea in a near-miraculous escape, their new home of Jincheon County, North Chungcheong Province, is receiving support from all over the country. A website called Jincheon Mall (jcmall.net) that sells Saenggeo Jincheon rice and other local specialties had to suspend operations temporarily because of an avalanche of orders.

“A huge degree of encouragement and support brought a surge of orders for all products at Jincheon Mall. We have halted orders on all our products for the time being because we expect delivery to be delayed for a long time,” Jincheon County said on Sunday.

When orders began to pour in, the county had posted a message on Saturday expressing gratitude and informing customers about the shipping delay. But after orders exceeded the website’s ability to handle them, the county had to temporarily shut it down. Jincheon is planning to reopen the store at 10 am on Thursday.

“We’ve received more than 1,500 orders since [Friday], when the Afghans arrived in the country, so we’re not able to ship products on time,” said Lee Jae-seok, director of Izensoft, the company hired to manage Jincheon Mall.

“We plan to reopen Jincheon Mall after dealing with the outstanding orders. This is a welcome challenge to face, but we’re just totally slammed at the moment.”

A total of 390 Afghans who had been evacuated to Korea unpacked their things at the National Human Resources Development Institute on Friday, in the North Chungcheong Innovation City in Jincheon, where they will be staying for the next 6-8 weeks.

Internet users from around the country rushed to support Jincheon by buying local products. Many of the customers on Jincheon Mall left comments about how they wanted to financially reward county residents for their classy behavior.

“I’d been wondering how I could help out,” said one commenter who feels “proud” to be part of the campaign. “From now on, my family will be eating Saenggeo Jincheon rice.”

“I appreciate the people of Jincheon for elevating our national prestige. I’ll buy rice from a place as prestigious as Jincheon,” wrote another individual.

After Jincheon Mall was temporarily shut down, disappointed commenters said they’d wanted to join the campaign and promised to drop by again.

“This is disappointing, since I’d even registered a friend’s address for sending Chuseok presents. Other people have already shown their appreciation, so I’ll have to wait for another opportunity. We need to keep rewarding these folks,” one of those commenters said.

Chuseok, a festival for the harvest moon, is one of Korea’s two biggest holidays.

Jincheon Mall, set up in 2004, gets 80% of its sales from Saenggeo Jincheon rice, along with other products, including fermented pastes like doenjang, packaged foods, fruit, and flowers.

The mall had processed 7,564 orders worth around 392 million won (US$336,550) through the end of June 2021. That amounts to a monthly average of 1,200 orders and sales of 65 million won (US$55,805).

But the mall processed around 1,500 orders worth 69 million won (US$59,239) in 48 hours between the afternoon of Friday and the morning of Sunday, both more than the mall typically handles in an entire month.

“When we housed Koreans evacuated from Wuhan, China, during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in February 2020, our orders increased by around 500-600 over the course of a month, but it wasn’t anything like this,” said Shin Hyeon-jeong, an official responsible for livestock distribution at the Jincheon County Center for Agricultural Technology.

In a related story, Koreans continue to inquire about how they can donate to help the Afghan families who were airlifted to Korea.

The Far East Broadcasting Company donated daily necessities in 50 categories, including diapers and fruit, which were delivered to the Afghans by the Korean Red Cross on Sunday. The Red Cross said that it will assign employees to the National Human Resources Development Institute, where the Afghans are housed, to handle inquiries about donations, process items donated, and issue receipts.

Considerable efforts are also underway at the local level to help the Afghans.

“Mayors’ councils, other organizations, and members of the general public keep expressing their desire to donate money and goods since the Afghans arrived at the institute. I hope that Koreans’ warm wishes will be communicated to the Afghans,” said Kim Du-hwan, deputy mayor of Jincheon County.

By Oh Yoon-joo, Cheongju correspondent

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