Create Added Value with Processed Korean Persimmons

Create Added Value with Processed Korean Persimmons

Persimmon is a fruit with excellent health functional effects such as fatigue recovery, cold prevention, and inhibition of high blood pressure. It contains sufficient amount of vitamin C, which is surprisingly the highest among fruits, even higher than that of tangerine, grapefruit, and kiwi, that are known to be rich in vitamin C. In Korea, persimmon is processed and consumed in various forms, such as hongsi(soft persimmon) or gotgam(dried whole persimmons), and lately, gammallaengi(dried persimmon) products are also available for purchase in the market. Nature Farm, an agricultural corporation located in Cheongdo, Gyeongsangbukdo, exports processed persimmon products to Japan and other countries to promote the excellence of Korean persimmons to international consumers.

Attention to the competitive Cheongdo Seedless Flat Persimmon

Persimmon is beloved in Korea, just like anywhere else, due to its high storage and high sugar content. There are several varieties such as dangam(fuyu persimmons) with a delightful crunch, and hongsi, gotgam that taste slightly different depending on the sweetness and period of maturity. This is also the reason why Yeo Jeong-su, the CEO of Nature Farm, who has been a researcher at a food company for 16 years, has become interested in processed products using persimmons. He has focused on the characteristics of persimmon that can be treated in numerous ways. In particular, Cheongdo Bansi(Cheongdo Seedless Flat Persimmon), one of the Korean persimmon varieties, is seedless with exceptional chewy texture when dried, so it was judged that it would be competitive to come up with a processed persimmon.

CEO Yeo said, “I believed that if I generate a processed product with sugar, seedless persimmon, it would definitely have a high marketability. This goes the same with shine muscat at the moment, which is currently very popular abroad. As Cheongdo Bansi has outstanding health functional benefits, it can be consumed as a snack. Although it is high in sugar content, this variety has a pleasant aftertaste. So I thought it would be a brilliant idea.”

Production through differentiated process

The Nature Farm’s main products are ice persimmon, semi-dried persimmon, and dried persimmon. All products are sugar free. The company has acquired certifications such as FSSC 22000 and GAP, and was acknowledged in Japan, where food export regulations are challenging. Indeed, one of the top products, dried persimmon, is exclusive to make up 95% of product exported from Korea to Japan.

It was only in 2015 that Nature Farm entered the overseas market in full scale. The company’s products were selected as a promising future product of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT), so it was helpful in expanding exports by meeting foreign buyers.

All the products go through a drying process, and they are manufactured in a ‘soft dry’ method solely developed by Nature Farm. Freeze drying, one of the widely recognized drying methods, has a problem of high cost due to the specialized equipment needed for the process, and hot air drying has a risk of destroying nutrients. CEO Yeo added that he felt the need for a new drying technique to be free of tannins that give the astringent taste from persimmons.

He pointed, “The Cheongdo Bansi has a higher sugar content than that of dangam, but it was difficult to taste the actual sweetness because of tannin, which gives a bitter taste. To solve such issue, a unique drying technology was developed. As a result, the astringent taste of persimmon was reduced and the shelf life was 15 times higher than that of the existing product.”

Promote Korean persimmon by export

It was only in 2015 that Nature Farm entered the overseas market in full scale. At the time, overseas exports began with the first USD 100,000 worth of exports to Japan.

Since then, the number of export countries have steadily increased such as Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Canada, reaching exports of USD 1.2 million last year. This year, it is expected to export USD 3.5 million in exports due to interest in K-Food along with K- Prevention of COVID-19. Here, the fact that the company’s products were selected as a promising future product of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation(aT) was also helpful in expanding exports by meeting foreign buyers. Nature Farm is looking forward to further expand exports thanks to the continuous support from aT in May, by registering their products on Alibaba, the largest online trading platform in China.

CEO Yeo Jeong-su

Nature Farm Corp.

+82-54-373-7561

gam@gam1.co.kr

www.nfdry.com