The Korean Hansalim Federation
One World Award Gold 2014

The incredible success story began in 1980. A tiny store called Hansalim Nong San which developed into a consumer cooperative two years later. A few figures illustrate today’s impact of Hansalim: The federation grows by 200 households – per day! Besides the major aim of securing the livelihoods of 2,000 farmers and their families about 4,000 full-time jobs have been created. In the process, Hansalim started a pioneer project with worker cooperatives organizing themselves in order to prevent cheap outsourcing of jobs. The declared commercial top objective is the absolute concentration on local, regional and national food supply chains. Consequently, Hansalim does not market products such as coffee or chocolate. The second objective is the organic quality of the products – not dogmatically but all products are produced without pesticides and are guaranteed GMO-free.

Many farmers are currently converting their farms to organic cultivation. Hansalim’s labelling system clearly distinguishes between organic and not (yet) organic products.

The federation is also heading the national movement for a GMO-free agriculture, is very outspoken in the struggle against nuclear power and fights for a sustainable agriculture policy. Hansalim also plays an instrumental role in coordinating the national organic movement having co-founded the national umbrella organisation KFSA (Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture Organizations) and takes a leading role within the IFOAM Asia network. Through its commitment in the Slow Food movement, the federation also bridges the gap between agricultural production and food culture.

Hansalim reaches its foremost goal to secure the livelihoods of small farming families in part with the help of a solidarity production stabilization fund. Consumers and farmers contribute to the fund which has built up reserves of several million dollars. If a farmer cannot produce due to illness or suffers significant losses for example through a hail storm or flooding, the fund provides a basic income securing the farmer’s economic survival. Another declared goal of Hansalim is the increase of the national food self-sufficiency rate as Korea imports almost 80 % of all food products.

At the beginning of each year a commission negotiates needed product volumes and determines fair prices. This gives farmers a secure income as the majority of the farmers have only 2 to 4 hectare “big” plots. However, thanks to modern, intensified organic cultivation methods the farms are highly efficient and protect and conserve endangered seed varieties and animal breeds.

The most impressive fact is that of each Dollar earned 75 cents (!) go directly to the farmer and only 25 cents are spent to cover processing and trading costs. This is only possible because the Hansalim administration consists of “only” 100 employees who manage a 300 million Dollar annual turnover.

Greatest attention is paid to sharing knowledge on food quality with all members, especially with the children. Each new member is getting a personal introductory training course on the philosophy and objectives of Hansalim. The members have an impressive record of raising money after disasters, for example for the victims of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima or for the people in the Philippines in the wake of the devastating hurricane.