Pohang wins national designation for strawberry cluster, targets 5 billion won in exports by 2030

Pohang, the North Gyeongsang city better known as South Korea's steel capital, has been confirmed as a government-designated specialist agricultural production complex for strawberries and has set a target of 5 billion won in strawberry exports by 2030, according to straightnews.co.kr.

From provincial pilot to national designation

The city said on 16 September that it had received final selection in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs programme of government-designated specialist agricultural production complexes for 2026. It marked the decision with an on-site meeting of local strawberry exporting growers and related organisations, at which a medium- to long-term roadmap for overseas markets was finalised.

Mayor Park Yong-seon attended, along with Kim Sang-cheol, head of the Pohang Strawberry Association, Park Hong-yeol, standing director of Heunghae Nonghyup, and leading export farms in the district. Participants reviewed the upgrade from a North Gyeongsang provincial pilot complex to a nationally certified specialist complex, and discussed finding overseas buyers and modernising smart-farm facilities.

The designation carries financial consequences. As an officially promoted complex, Pohang receives priority allocation from the ministry for overseas sales promotion, support tied to air and sea logistics costs, global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification, and funding to refurbish smart-farm installations.

A variety change dictated by transport

Seolhyang, the variety that dominates the domestic market, has soft flesh and frequently deteriorated during long-distance air and sea transport. The city and its growers carried out a full switch to Geumsil, an export-specialised premium variety with firmer flesh, better storage performance and higher sugar content.

Alongside the variety change, Heunghae Nonghyup and the Pohang Strawberry Association built a modern joint grading and packing centre equipped with ICT-based temperature and humidity controlled cold storage, a non-destructive sugar-content sorting line, and an automated packing line built to export specifications. The cluster also joined K-Berry, Korea's integrated strawberry export organisation, and obtained its strict global quality certification standards.

Seven markets, fifteen exporting farms

As a result, Pohang strawberries have cleared demanding quarantine requirements and expanded into seven overseas markets: the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, the last of them an emerging affluent market in the Middle East.

The production base behind those shipments remains compact:

• 55 farms on 20.6 hectares producing 1,082 tonnes of strawberries a year
• 15 selected farms on 7 hectares supplying export channels
• Seven destination markets across North America, Asia and the Middle East

Targets for 2030 and 2035

Using the national support as a base, the city intends to reach 5 billion won in exports of strawberries as a single item by 2030. It then plans to bundle strawberries with other local specialities such as apples and Chinese chives to bring total Pohang agricultural and specialty exports to 50 billion won by 2035, ahead of schedule. Neither current export tonnage nor the current export value of Pohang strawberries was disclosed.

Mayor Park Yong-seon said the designation was "a valuable victory achieved by the administration, the agricultural cooperative and farmers uniting as one through technological innovation and variety diversification." He added that the city would combine Pohang's advanced smart agriculture technology to capture the tastes of consumers worldwide, raise farm incomes and build a firm long-term foundation for local agriculture.