Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp. (aT) celebrated the first anniversary of its Spring Orchid Sales Outlet on June 24. Since 2005, aT had thought about spurring the spring Orchid market in the country and popularizing the flower so a city farm could be created, and thus it opened its Spring Orchid Sales Counter last year.
aT wanted set up a competitive and open electronics public sales system for fair and just distribution to widen consumption. One key component was to include low income families, not only to increase income to orchid farmers, but also to provide jobs to housewives, second jobs for salarymen and jobs retired people by exploring the spring orchid sales counters, which is a very significant move on the part of aT. The move also broadened the market of orchids, rather than being sold only among those who love the flower.
aT also decided to set the price of the flower jointly with a private price evaluation team and orchid farmers. The orchid growers were required to attach their histories of growing the orchids to guarantee the origin of their flowers. They also had to guarantee the registration of their orchids in order to solve any problems that may arise after the flower is sold.
The bidding price of a bundle of orchids went as high as 105 million won, with total orchids sold amounting to 2 billion won. Altogether 500 orchid bidders registered.
About 700 of those who wanted to enter the orchid business went through the Korea Spring Orchid Education managed by aT. Last November, aT Center in Seoul held a orchid exhibition to attract some 5,000 orchid lovers and other citizens, making a big contribution to the popularization of the flower in Korea.
Owing to such efforts by aT, the price of orchid sets rose up to 40 percent, with housewives and men with jobs taking increased interest in the flower. It has aroused a “orchid tech,” which also helped boost the number of new orchid lovers.
The sales of orchids around the country amounted to around 250 billion won, with orchid farmers numbering around 500,000. Demand is hot, as orchids have become hard to get. Large quantities of the flower are sold in open biddings.
Long-term, aT plans to expand the scale of orchid farms for those orchids in the mid to low price ranges, and supplant imported orchids sold at orchid futures markets with those grown domestically. The plan is to export orchids that are popular abroad to such countries as China and Japan.
“We plan to set up an education course to deepen the knowledge of orchids and carry out very a active public relations campaign for orchids with the spring orchid organizations in a bid to further popularize the flower to the extent that it would be a legitimate industry in the near future,” said Director Lee Jong-kyon, in charge of the Future Growth Headquarters at aT.
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