매실산업 활성화 방안 : 광양지역

The Prunus mune (Maesil) is vital to the Gwangyang economy. This is because some 28 percent of the Prunus mune is produced in Gwangyang region and one-third of its farmhouses grow the Prunus mune. The Prunus mune products, therefore, approximately account for 20 percent of the agricultural income of this region. This paper, hence, aims at studying how to increase the demand for the Prunus mume products. The consumers, who might be called green consumers, tend to purchase the environment-friendly agricultural products rather than usual ones. In this respect, we can say that the Prunus mune industry has a good opportunity for enlarging the market, since the Prunus mune begins to be recognized as a health functional food. The paper suggests that something should be done to increase the demand for the Prunus mune items produced in Gwangyang. The Prunus mune products must be differentiated as well as segmented according to the income and the ages of consumers. It is also very important to develop environment-friendly Prunus mune products as a product mix strategy. The local government should launch a policy for establishing food clusters and make an effort to induce R&D investment and develop new products. Those measures enable the small-sized firms to overcome the deterioration of the competitiveness and enjoy the economies of scale. The cluster-based policy framework is very efficient but should be complemented with infrastructure policies for the better policy-mix.