Haenam County opens the sweet potato research center

(Haenam=Yonhap News) Reporter Jo Geun-young = On the 25th, Haenam County in Jeonnam held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Sweet Potato Research Center in Pyeonghwa-ri, Samsan-myeon, announcing a new leap for the Haenam sweet potato industry.

The Sweet Potato Center, with a total investment of 5 billion won, is equipped with a research building (672 m²), a plastic greenhouse (4,000 m²), storage facilities, purification facilities, and demonstration test fields (24,930 m²) on a site of approximately 30,000 m².

This center is a specialized research facility responsible for the entire sweet potato industry, including the development, cultivation, and dissemination of sweet potato varieties suitable for the region, the production of tissue-cultured seedlings, research on pest and disease diagnosis and reduction technology, improvement of cultivation techniques, and development of processed products.

The county plans to establish a "Haenam-style sweet potato industrialization model" by integrating production, processing, and distribution into one system based on the center.

Furthermore, the county intends to strengthen the competitiveness of Haenam sweet potatoes and secure stable production technology to enhance the value of the premium brand, and to play a central role in industrialization and value-added creation linked with local farms.

Haenam has the largest sweet potato cultivation area in the country (1,943 ha), and "Haenam sweet potato," registered as Geographical Indication No. 42, is establishing itself as a representative premium agricultural product of the Republic of Korea.

chogy@yna.co.kr