Chungcheongnam-do

In September 2006, we held the 2006 Geumsan World Ginseng Expo, which was prepared by the Chungcheongnam Province for four years with the ambition to vitalize the ginseng business and recover the international reputation of Korean ginseng. The tangible results were extraordinary; around 680,000 visitors home and abroad participated in the expo; the export agreements amounted to 22 million dollars; and the sales of ginseng products were about 300 billion won. With the successful wrapup of the event, let us now examine its implications and results.
The number of companies that displayed their products in the expo was 65 from nine nations including China, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The global aspects of the event became more apparent with a total of 27 nations taking part in the export meetings and international academic conferences. Both in name and practice, the event was a truly international one, which is its biggest accomplishment.

Diverse events to raise the expo's international perception
The expo resulted in satisfying profits too; the admission fees amounted to 1.7 billion won and the official sponsorship provided 480 million won. Thus the first-hand profits were about 3.08 billion won. One of the most noteworthy outcomes was the huge number of exports contracts with the buyers from many different countries that translated into 22 million dollars.
What's as important as those tangible results are the intangible ones in living up to the title of a world expo. The international ginseng symposiums and academic conferences helped enhance the world's perception of Korean ginseng and set up the infrastructure for the globalization of the ginseng market.
The experience-oriented displays were popular among the visitors.
The diversity of the displays made a big contribution to promoting the effects of Korean ginseng worldwide. The various approaches to the single theme of ginseng were effective in publicizing the functions and efficacy of the Korean ginseng.
Designed to allow for first-hand experiences of the efficacy of ginseng, the experience displays induced a large amount of reactions from the visitors highly concerned with health and offered a chance to prove the efficacy of ginseng in a powerful way.


It was a good opportunity to heighten the brand value of Korean ginseng.
With the increasingly large supply of low-priced foreign ginseng, the Korean ginseng industry is in need for a chance to take a new leap into the bright future. It's the common judgment that the expo played the supporting role sufficiently for the sake of the Korean ginseng farmers.
Growing in the climate of Korea whose daylight total is 50 days more than other nations, Korean ginseng is rich in the ingredients beneficial to man including saponin. It boasts a long history of high reputations in both the Orient and the Occident. The expo was a chance for the Korean ginseng industry to overcome the large supply of low-priced ginseng products from other countries and the deteriorating consumptions at home, to publicize the efficacy of Korean ginseng, and thus to heighten its brand values.

 

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“Korean ginseng is the best!”

“Now I can see the efficacy and value of Korean ginseng here,” said the governor of Kumamoto, Japan, a sister city of Chungnam, Shiotani Yoshiko, right after having a tour of the expo. “I am deeply impressed by the contents of the displays. Most of all, I am surprised to see so many people showing such a huge interest in health.”
Since ginseng is not grown in Kumamoto, he carefully implied that the expo could result in ginseng trades.
She shouted “Geumsan ginseng is the best!” giving his thumb up instead of a speech.

“I would like to help hold a ginseng expo in America.”

“It's surprising that you can make such diverse foods with ginseng. The Koreans living in America love ginseng. I would like to take the roles of an envoy to promote Korean ginseng worldwide.” “The diverse and creative displays of the ginseng products demonstrate that ginseng are not only medical materials but also used to make various foods. I would like to volunteer to work as a ginseng envoy out of my love for ginseng and lead a project to hold a ginseng expo in America.”
Former congressman of the United States, Mr. Kim Chang-jun, left the event saying that he eagerly wished a ginseng expo would happen in America after systematic and comprehensive reviews.