A study on the improvement of distribution system by overseas agricultural investment

세계경제 및 환경의 변화에 따라 농산물의 불안정적인 수급으로 인한 문제점이 노출되고 있으며, 우리나라의 경우 농산물의 안정적인 확보를 위하여 국가 전략적 차원에서의 해외농업투자의 필요성이 요구되고 있다. 하지만 정부차원의 지원 미진, 해외 농업에 대한 정보 및 기술 미비, 개발자금 확보의 어려움, 장기간의 투자금 회수기간, 사후관리 미흡 등의 이유로 성과를 이루지 못하고 있는 실정이며, 특히 해외 농산물의 국내 반입 시 관세의 장벽, 물류 유통비용 등으로 가격 경쟁력이 떨어지고 있어 국내에 반입되지 못하고 있는 실정이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 우리나라의 해외농업투자의 기본개념 및 실태를 살펴보고 해외농업투자의 필요성과 고려사항, 문제점 등을 도출하여 해외에서 재배된 농산물의 경쟁 력을 위한 유통 측면에서의 개선방안을 정부의 간접적인 지원, 유통 현대화 및 유통정보기능 강화, 유통시설, 수송루트, 하역업무개선, 경쟁력 확보를 위한 정부의 정책적 지원, 교육 훈련을 통한전문인력 양성 등 다섯 가지 측면에서 제시하였다.

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products ge