Coupang purchases 200 tons of seasonal produce leftover from Seollal

Tomatoes sold through Coupang's Rocket Fresh grocery delivery service [COUPANG]

Coupang purchased 200 tons of seasonal produce leftover after the Lunar New Year holidays to help revitalize the agriculture industry.

The e-commerce company bought strawberries, apples and tomatoes, among others, from 1,000 farmhouses nationwide.

As the harvest period is between December to January and February to March, it’s best for farmers if the new year holidays lands in February. If the holidays are in February, they can easily sell their produce from the harvest period between December to January.

If the holidays are in January, the demand for produce falls in February.

“Due to long-term inflation and reduced consumer sentiment, produce which should have been sold is now being stacked up,” said Lee Sang-bok, the head of Agriculture Product Processing Center at Chungju, North Chungcheong. “Tons of apples may have been disposed at processing factories without even getting back the production costs, but due to Coupang, hundreds of apple farms in North Chungcheong were able to sell their harvests.”

This is the second time Coupang purchased leftover produce after the holidays. Last September, Coupang purchased 100 tons of apples after Chuseok and successfully sold them all in two weeks.

This time, Coupang will sell strawberries, apples, tomatoes, grapes and pears harvested from 11 regions at promotional prices through its Rocket Fresh grocery delivery service.

“We hope this campaign will help regional farms who have worked hard to harvest their produce only to face difficulty in selling it,” said a Coupang spokesperson. “We’ll try our best to contribute to the regional economy by helping the farms, and to provide consumers with high-quality produce at a reasonable price.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]