Seasonal luxury spinach 'Sinan Seomcho', good yield and rising prices

(Sinan=Yonhap News) Reporter Cho Geon-yeong = The shipment of high-quality spinach from Sinan, Jeonnam, is in full swing as the season has arrived. With good crop conditions and rising prices, smiles are blooming on the lips of the farmers cultivating it. According to the Bigeom Agricultural Cooperative in Sinan on the 18th, up to 2,000 boxes of spinach, weighing 8 kg each, are being shipped daily from Bigeom Island, the main production area, to markets such as Garak-dong Market in Seoul. The price is an average of 50,000 won per box of 8 kg (with the highest price at 80,000 won), which is 10,000 won higher than the same period last year. An official from the Bigeom Agricultural Cooperative said, "This year's spinach crop is good, and it seems that the yield will increase, and the price is good as well," and boasted, "It is delicious now, but the flavor deepens after it is repeatedly frozen and melted by cold winds and snow, making it a delicacy." Grown in open fields rich in germanium, the spinach from the island, unlike those from other regions, contains more anti-cancer and nutritional components and has a strong sweetness, and will be shipped until early April next year. The cultivation area for spinach in the Bigeom region is 450 hectares, involving 700 farms, and brought in 9.4 billion won in income last year. chogy@yna.co.kr