North Jeolla Province is striving to promote food and beverages made with “bokbunja,” a wild blackberry indigenous to the region, to carve out a niche market and boost the local economy.

Bokbunja has for decades been widely consumed by Koreans due to its antioxidant, anticancer and beauty effects.

The wild fruit has been an economic driver for the region since residents started cultivating it on their farms in the late 1980s. Three adjacent counties ― Gochang, some 296 kilometers south of Seoul, Sunchang and Jeongeup ― account for 84 percent of the country’s bokbunja output.

The provincial government has been propping up the sector by forming a food cluster to foster exports and tourism. It is also diversifying its product lineup into liquors, beverages, teas, snacks, noodles, cosmetics and medicine.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry also plans to fund 5.9 billion won ($5.1 million) by 2013 for marketing, R&D and facility expansion.

“North Jeolla is the region of taste with lots of popular specialties such as chili pepper paste, cheese and bibimbap,” a ministry official said, referring to a Korean dish served in a bowl of rice with sauted and seasoned vegetables.

“The project will help the cluster scale up exports in cooperation with nearby agricultural production complexes and ports, targeting Northeast Asia.”

The market has expanded to nearly 200 billion won last year from 40 billion won in 2004, according to the Jebba Food & Beverages Corp., an association of bokbunja producers in North Jeolla Province.

But the growth has stagnated in the past few years on the back of oversupplies, output losses following natural disasters, and the surge in the popularity of makgeolli, a Korean rice wine.

To tackle challenges, the association joined forces with leading local breweries and distilleries including Kooksoondang and Baesangmyun to produce bokbunja-based products.

It said it also strives to draw up a farming manual to maintain consistency and quality of fruit.

Last month, the association forged contracts with two Japanese retailers ― Ecofood System and Andamul ― under which it could export bokbunja products worth $500,000 a year.

Ecofood supplies alcoholic drinks and food materials to some 3,000 restaurants and bars in Japan. Andamul runs a mobile shopping mall where Japanese customers buy Korean products.

“The deal will give a fresh impetus to the struggling local bokbunja industry,” said Lee Kyung-soo, president of Jebba.

“We plan to develop more products that are relevant to the Korean Wave in other countries to spur the expansion of the market.”

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)