Today's Date:      Wednesday, April 18, 2012

1. MARKETING ISSUES

Convenience Stores to be Allowed to Sell Cold Medicine by End of This Year [Korean, OSY]

http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2012041799601&sid=0106&nid=009&ltype=1

Summary: The ruling party and the opposition party agreed on April 17 that they will vote for a new regulation in the upcoming national assembly session to allow convenience stores to sell home emergency drugs such as cold medicine.  If the regulation passes, actual sales of cold medicine in convenience stores is likely to start at the end of this year.

2. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

Food Insecurity Raises Alarm For Quality Food[English, MGF]

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr

Summary: When Choi Kyu-hong imagines the possibilities his work might give him in the future, he is thinking of a huge skyscraper filled with plants that grow grain, vegetables, crops, maybe even cows and pigs raised on a few floors in between the plants. Choi is an agricultural scientist, working for South Korea's Rural Development Administration in a three-story vertical farm in Suwon, approximately 46 kilometers south of Seoul. The future of farming is still murky, but what Choi is working on could be a glimpse of what is to come.  "Lately there are many disasters happening, such as earthquakes, heavy snowfall or heavy rain and less sunshine. We have to prepare and that is why we are researching plant factories," says Choi.Park Hwan-il, already working from one of the many skyscrapers in southern Seoul, is a research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), an economist and a specialist on food security. His focus is on securing a stable supply of high-quality food from abroad.  "Climate change and natural disasters increased food prices," Park says. The outcome, he explains, was food crises, such as those in 2008 and 2010.  Both Choi and Park, although their work is different, recognize the urgency for preemptive measures to deal with climate change and its effect on food production.

Food Minister Asks China to Open Up Market For Korean Kimch [English, MGF]

http://english.donga.com

Summary: The Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Tuesday that it will encourage China increase imports of the Korean spicy side dish kimchi and milky rice wine makgeolli. Minister Suh Kyu-yong asked Chinese Agriculture Minister Han Changfu at an agriculture meeting involving Korea, China and Japan Sunday to permit more imports of Korean kimchi, makgeolli and ginseng aged four years by setting up separate hygiene standards for the three products.