Gijang Sea Mustard, Real Product on the King’s Royal Table

Sea mustard is sea algae famous for being rich in all kinds of nutrients and minerals such as dietary fiber, vitamin K, calcium, magnesium, etc. Among them, it is ‘Gijang Sea Mustard’ grown in the sea of Gijang, Busan that is extremely delicious and nutritious. As Gijang sea mustard is so rare that its production is only 10% of the total production of sea mustard in South Korea, it is of the best quality enough to document “sea mustard grown in the sea of Gijang is more delicious than any other sea mustard grown in any sea, so the table for the King is not prepared without it.” in Sejong Silok Jiriji. We met MINSU KIM, the representative of GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd, which takes the lead in the improvement and globalization of Gijang sea mustard in Gijang, Busan, the home of sea mustard.

 

GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd, Stubborn about Premium Sea Algae for Generations

GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd located at Ilgwang-myeon, Gijang-gun, Busan, Republic of Korea is the largest manufacturing and distribution company for sea algae products in Busan and Gyeongnam with a 30-year history. YANGCHOON KIM, the joint representative and the president of GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd, established the company in 1991 with a mind to engage in the local specialty industry for the rest of his life and his son MINSU KIM has run the company with a young sense as well as accumulated know-how since he was appointed as a joint representative in 2020.

As GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd mainly trades in sea algae including sea mustard and kelp, it manufactures and distributes a variety of processed products such as aged sea mustard, kelp pack, kelp, seaweed salad, etc. Its major accounts are domestic markets, online markets and wholesale and retail stores nationwide. As of 2020, sales reached 7 billion won, of which sea mustard accounts for half. Sea mustard worth about 100 million won annually has been exported to the United States, Russia, Japan, Southeast Asia, etc.

Winning a variety of awards such as a bronze prize in the 2017 Fishery Products Brand Award, a citation from the head of Busan Economic Promotion Agency in 2017, a citation from the Minister of Ministry of SMEs and Startups(MSS) in 2019, etc., GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd is truly the representative fishery company in Busan which was selected as a leading company in Busan in the marine field in 2020 for 5 consecutive years.

 

 

△ Outside View of GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd

Premium Sea Mustard produced in the Best Geographic Environment

‘Premium GIJANGAE Sea Mustard’ with K·FISH certification is a product that raw sea mustard harvested in Winter is boiled with hot water, preserved with salt and dried after being cleansed. GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd conducts all processes from the preprocessing of raw materials to the production of products in an one-stop way. Because over 1,000 tons of raw materials are annually directly purchased from local fishermen in Gijang through contract cultivation, products can be stably produced all the year round.

GIJANG sea mustard is of the best quality because of the geographical environment. The sea of Gijang is the areas of the sea rich in nutritive salts where the warm currents and the cold currents meet. As it is a path that a typhoon passes, seawater is mixed 4~5 times a year to circulate plankton and organic matters, which provides sea algae with plenty of nutrients. In addition, with hard currents and a large amount of sunshine, it is the best environment where sea mustard and kelp grow healthy with a good taste and texture.

“GIJANG sea mustard is sea mustard that leaves and stems need not to be separated. As the processing processes are reduced, the taste and nutrition of sea mustard itself as well as freshiness can be maintained. Sea mustard and kelp produced in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan in the same Sea of Okhotsk are called premium products and are significantly higher than Korean products. But, our products are of better quality that those products. Gijang sea mustard is a product which can be upgraded enough to be recognized in the world, so we are making efforts to realize it.”

 

 

△ Premium Gijangae Sea Mustard with K·FISH Certification

Add Trust and Sustainability to Premium Sea Mustard

GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd has a variety of certifications which guarantee food safety such as the quality certification of fishery products, the certification of organic fishery products, the seafood traceability system, SQF, etc. as well as K·FISH certification. In particular, as the SQF certification conforms to HACCP standards of Codex Alimentarius Commission, it is famous for being very strict and among them, GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd has a SQF level 2 certification. These certifications have made consumers think that they can eat such food with trust, but the company did not stop.

GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd obtained the ASC-MSC certification with sea algae (sea mustard) in 2019 for the first time in the world. As the ASC-MSC certification is awarded to a company which minimizes the destruction of the marine environment and pursues the sustainable fishery business, its purpose is to hand down abundant fishery resources to the future descendants. The representative added that it is difficult to acquire the ASC-MSC certification because it takes 2 years and 6 months to go through all procedures, but it was necessary to expand export markets considering that the sustainable certification is considered as a fundamental certification, not a premium, in the export markets including Europe.

 

 

△ All Kinds of Certifications of GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd

R&D, with the Competitiveness corresponding to the Changeable Market

Apart from acquiring all kinds of certifications, there is a field on which the representative has worked, which is selected as the company’s forte. It is R&D through its own laboratory. GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd is aimed at occupying the market in advance by continuously developing and releasing new products suitable for a new market. The representative explained that R&D is necessary to plan products conformable to requirements by constantly communicating with accounts. The importance of R&D is evident in a case of seaweed salad. Seaweed salad developed in 2008 did not achieve remarkable results at that time, but in 2015, when a growing number of people paid attention to and demanded for healthy food, it became a profitable product which rapidly developed the company with 10 billion won in sales in home shopping. The fruits of efforts to prepare for the future have played a signifcant role in deciding a direction for the company. The representative explained that the company has been still working on a variety of R&D projects.

“We have studied how to utilize the by-products of sea algae with poor merchantable quality. Considering that half of the sea mustard production is by-products, I think that we can expand the consumption of sea algae and solve a problem of by-product disposal if we succeed in product development through R&D. Furthermore, I also think that we will increase the interests of the company and the profits of local fishermen.”

 

 

△ A Variety of Product Families in GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd created from Long-time Development

Plan to Enhance the Status of K-SEAFOOD from Busan to the World

GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd has GIJANG FOOD Co., Ltd, a restaurant company ‘Eobo’, etc. as a subsidiary. The representative got a hint about the restaurant business from the Korean Food Globalization Business conducted by Korean Food Promotion Institute. For example, it is to promote the consumption of fishery products by organizing and selling Korean food with fishery products as a main menu in a way of selling sea mustard soup, not raw sea mustard. The restaruant company has been expanded to a franchise and the company considers its overseas expansion when a COVID-19 situation is over.

In addition, it also plans a hyper-local business project which comes closer to consumers based on Busan including a regular delivery service, a side dish business, etc.

“We will push forward with a variety of projects with fishery products ranging from 1st raw materials, 2nd processed products to 3rd services. We also have a plan to advance overseas markets in the future such as opening a flag shop in foreign countries, etc. I think that the K·FISH certification will be helpful for local marketing and export support businesses. We will make continuous efforts to globalize K-SEAFOOD.”

■ Information on GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd

△ CI of GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd

▷ Address : GIJANG MULSAN Co., Ltd, 30-16, Sinpyeong-gil, Ilgwang-myeon, Gijang-gun, Busan, Republic of Korea
▷ Inquiry : Tel. 051-722-0238
▷ E-mail : kyc4403@daum.net
▷ Homepage : www.gijangmulsan.com/

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Sea mustard is sea algae famous for being rich in all kinds of nutrients and minerals such as dietary fiber, vitamin K, calcium, magnesium, etc. Among them, it is ‘Gijang Sea Mustard’ grown in the sea of Gijang, Busan that is extremely delicious and nutritious.