Korean Chamoe Melons Shipped to Vietnam — A Green Light for Southeast Asian Expansion
CA Technology Keeps Freshness Comparable to Air Shipment… Cuts Costs by 40–60%
Korean chamoe (Korean melon), exported to Vietnam by sea for the first time, received high marks locally for matching the quality of air-shipped melons that arrive within a day.
The Rural Development Administration (RDA) announced on the 20th that it will begin full-scale marine exports of chamoe to Southeast Asia this month using Controlled Atmosphere (CA) technology.
CA (Controlled Atmosphere) technology maintains freshness over long periods by controlling oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. When applied to shipping containers, it becomes advantageous for long-distance export.
Currently, around 300 tons of Korean chamoe are exported annually, primarily to nearby countries like Japan and Hong Kong.
To expand to Southeast Asia, the RDA set its sights on the Vietnamese market. After finalizing quarantine requirements earlier this year, Korea exported 30 tons of chamoe to Vietnam via air freight from mid-March to mid-April for the first time.
Wolhang Agricultural Cooperative, which handles over half of Seongju’s chamoe exports, implemented the RDA-developed “Chamoe CA Export Model” and successfully exported 4 tons of chamoe to Vietnam by sea on May 8.
This model incorporates cold storage, pre-cooling, and functional packaging (Modified Atmosphere, MA) technologies into the export process. It maintains a damage rate of less than 1%, comparable to air freight, while reducing costs by about 40–60%.
Thanks to the ability to keep chamoe fresh for 10 to 15 days, exports to distant markets such as Vietnam and Singapore—five to seven times farther than Japan—are now more viable.
Seongju’s export operations plan to increase exports to Southeast Asia to 10 shipments (40 tons) by July, applying CA technology to approximately 13% of total chamoe exports.
Ryu Sang-cheon, Executive Director of Wolhang Agricultural Cooperative, stated, “With the full implementation of CA technology, a new breakthrough is expected in chamoe exports, which have so far heavily relied on air transport.”
Lim Jong-guk, Director of the Storage and Distribution Division at RDA’s National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, added, “Once the CA-based export system is fully established, more global consumers will come to appreciate the excellence of Korean chamoe.”
He also emphasized, “We will continue to support quality maintenance technologies to diversify export markets and reduce logistics costs.”
[Editor Junbeom]
