South Korea: Stored pears are showing symptoms of water-soaking, Rural Development Administration is working to build a non-destructive sorting system

It has been found that some of this year’s stored pears are showing symptoms of ‘water-soaking’, where the insides are rotten and turn brown. The Rural Development Administration recently visited the Jinju Korea Pear Farming Association in Gyeongnam Province to inspect the condition of stored pears and seek solutions to the problem of deteriorating quality. The Korea Pear Farming Association is a group of 40 farms in the Jinju area, producing 350 tons of pears on a total of 60 hectares. The cultivation rate of the ‘Shingo’ variety is around 80%. Since 2017, domestic pears have been exported to 16 countries including Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Thailand through quality standardization and systematic product management. Kim Geon-soo, the representative of the Korea Pear Agricultural Cooperative, said in a meeting with Kwon Jae-han, the head of the Rural Development Administration, “The outside of the pears harvested and ...