“Strong peach flavor and high in sugar melting in mouth.” Last July, shoppers at the H Mart Buena Park store expressed enthusiasm for the ‘Kuemsil’, a variety of Korean strawberries, strawberries offered by ‘Doctor Moon Produce’.
Despite customers’ fascination with the flavor of Kuemsil strawberries, initial sales did not occur at the time.
However, it was enough for Jongbeom Moon to introduce Korean strawberries, which he has been harvesting for the past three years through trial and error, to the U.S. market.
One year later, these strawberries are now available for purchase by consumers. Sales will begin next month at H Mart at Koreatown Plaza and Buena Park stores. It plans to expand to stores throughout California.
Moon’s Kuemsil strawberries are the first Korean variety of strawberries to be harvested after three years of cultivation on Oxnard farm with a license from the Korean government.
Moon attended Boston University and earned a doctorate in Business Administration from Seoul National University. In 2007, at the young age of thirty-five, he became a professor at Konkuk University, where he taught for eleven years. In 2018, he came to the U.S. as the head of the global business unit of WiseWires, a Korean IT company.
Always believing that agriculture is the industry of the future, Moon took on the challenge of growing Korean strawberries in the U.S.
Instead of choosing a variety of Sulhyang strawberries, which account for 80% of Korea’s strawberries, he chose Kuemsil, a new variety that is hard to grow but sweet and juicy. While Sulhyang averages about 10.4 brix of sweetness, Kuemsil is much sweeter at more than 12 brix and harder in texture, making it an ideal product for distribution in the U.S.
Moon encountered numerous trials and errors before successfully cultivating and selling the strawberries in California. He registered a seed patent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the first for a Korean strawberry and the second after Japan’s Yotoboshi strawberry.
He signed an export agreement with Gyeongnam, the province in Korea that developed the variety, and flew to the U.S. in July 2020 with 10 tissue culture seedlings of Kuemsil strawberries. They were multiplied to 240 at a nursery in Lassen, and the first plantings began at the San Bernardino farm. They then grew to 15,000 plants at the Oxnard farm last July.
Currently spanning two acres, the strawberry farm is set to expand twentyfold next year, pending the identification of an optimal location.
“We are making as many seedlings as possible to prepare for next year’s large-scale supply with a perfect system and quality,” said Moon. “This year, it’s not about the number of sales, but about making the first appearance to consumers.”
Moon remains optimistic regarding the U.S. market potential for Korean strawberries.
“Due to the rapid increase in the cost of all materials and climate change, the production of strawberries in the U.S. is decreasing while the price is increasing,” said Moon. “If we enhance our technology, accumulate know-how, and expand our scale, we expect the unit cost of producing Kuemsil strawberries to decrease and close the price gap with U.S. strawberries in three to four years.”
“Kuemsil strawberries harvested in California will first be available in H Mart and then expand to the major market when the brand is more recognized,” he said. “We plan to create a market for Korean strawberries that are high in sweetness and firmness.”
BY EUNYOUNG LEE, HOONSIK WOO [lee.eunyoung6@koreadaily.com]
