Editorial Suwon Local Food Direct Shop Officially Designated as 'Excellent Agricultural Products Direct Trading Facility'

The Suwon Local Food Direct Shop, operated directly by Suwon Metropolitan City, is located at 13, Gwanggyosan-ro 509-gil, Jangan-gu, Sangwang-gyo. It is a place frequently visited by citizens who hike Mount Gwanggyo or use nearby restaurants. The entire facility covers 916.17 square meters and consists of one basement level and two above-ground floors. It has a sales floor, packaging room, safety inspection room, multipurpose room, and cultural space. Here, citizens can confidently purchase fresh vegetables such as lettuce, apples, strawberries, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, green onions, red peppers, cherry tomatoes, and eggs grown by local farmers.

Opening in November 2016, it has now been in operation for about 10 years. It is a direct agricultural trading shop that directly connects agricultural product producers and consumers without intermediate distribution channels. Local farmers from Sangwang-gyo and Hawang-gyo districts, as well as from Suwon and nearby Hwaseong, produce and package the products, set prices, and display and sell them themselves.

The Suwon Local Food Direct Shop was opened to provide local farms with stable sales channels and income to revitalize the local economy. Approximately 90% of sales revenue goes to the producers.

Citizens can also purchase affordable and healthy food. Leafy vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, lettuce, and spinach are not sold after 24 hours of display, while fruit-vegetables and mushrooms such as cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, green peppers, green beans, and bell peppers are not sold after 48 hours. Thorough pesticide residue tests are conducted, and the shipping date, production location, producer name, and contact information are clearly marked, which builds consumer confidence.

This is why the Suwon Local Food Direct Shop has been officially designated as an 'Excellent Agricultural Products Direct Trading Facility' by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT). The excellent agricultural products direct trading facility certification system is designed to increase consumer confidence in agricultural product direct trading and prevent the proliferation of similar unauthorized direct trading operations.

The Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) conducts the review, and then the Central Council for Agricultural Product Direct Trading Activation deliberates on it—the procedure is extremely rigorous. After an initial document review, experts visit the facility to conduct on-site inspection. Consumer satisfaction is also evaluated. Only after going through these procedures does the certification deliberation committee make a decision to select excellent agricultural products direct trading facilities, which builds confidence.

A Suwon City official states, "The Suwon Local Food Direct Shop received high scores across all areas, including ▲the proportion of directly traded agricultural products and the farm return rate ▲consumer information provision and freshness management ▲and operation of planned production programs considering small-scale and elderly farmers." It also received an evaluation of achieving 'mutual benefit effects.' This is because the income stability of participating farmers and the burden of consumer household shopping expenses have been alleviated.

We hope that the Suwon Local Food Direct Shop, having gained external recognition for its public value and expertise, will become the nation's best local food direct shop that satisfies both consumers and farmers in the future.