Research and technology has been transforming the agriculture to agribusiness which encompasses all operations with all the connections from faming per se, to manufacture & distribution of production supplies and farm commodities. Further, with the revolutionary development of information technology in the last two decades, we cannot talk about agribusiness process alone without considering the information technology embedded in the artifact, process, and structure. Despite the emergence of precision agriculture (PA) which is supported by IT based innovations which can not only improve efficiency in farming operations but also contribute to environmental sustainability, the adoption of IT among farmers and in agriculture industry are rather low than expected. Thus, Korean government has been seeking to converge IT into food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries to improve the competency of the agribusiness, and much progress has been made. This paper investigated the status quo of the current IT convergence with Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Korea, and further proposed future policy directions.
Since the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Chile, the EU, and the U.S., Korean agricultural produce markets have turned into a fierce competition landscape. Under these competitive circumstances, marketing is critical. The objective of the research presented herein is to understand the characteristics of customer preferences after locating trends of purchased items. So This research establishes sustainable strategies for Korean agricultural produce. This investigation used market-basket analysis techniques and panel data for its research. Market-basket analysis is a technique which attempts to find groups of items that are commonly found together. The results show that, for one year, processed food using wheat, processed marine products, and pork are commonly bought together and that yogurt and milk also are bought together. The characteristics of customers buying these items are 44 years old and live in a four-person household with two children. These customers do not live with their parents.
This study aims to subdivide consumers by attributes determined mainly by consumers of fresh ginseng. It is to compare and analyze the characteristics by cluster, and to deduce the implications on distribution and marketing. For this study, a survey was conducted targeting 250 consumers of fresh ginseng. The factors were deduced through performing the exploratory factor analysis on the results of the survey, and the consumers of fresh ginseng were classified through cluster analysis. As a result of the study, the attributes considered for the purchase of fresh ginseng were condensed to the three factors: physical characteristic factor, safety factor, and cultivation indication information factor. With these as the standard, the consumers of fresh ginseng were subdivided into the three clusters: safety-oriented consumption type, label-centered consumption type, and high involvement consumption type. It was found that there were differences in demographic characteristics and attributes considered for purchase of fresh ginseng by cluster analysis. This study suggests the implications for revitalization of the fresh ginseng industry by subdividing consumers of fresh ginseng and suggesting the characteristics by cluster.