Korean kale... and then some
Frustrated foodies gobble up South Korean grocery unicorn's varied offerings
Korean farmers are proud of the fact that they can produce such nice quality products, but it is very difficult for them to get to the consumer
When Sophie Kim moved home to South Korea after 15 years in the United States, she couldn't find anywhere to buy kale for her green juice. So she found a farmer, then built an app to help others seek out top-quality produce.
The next-day grocery delivery service - Market Kurly - that 38-year-old Kim founded, is now one of South Korea's most important startup unicorns, last valued at Us$3bn and set for an initial public offering by February.
Kim, a self-professed 'foodie', came up with the idea after she got tired of endlessly going from shop to shop to find the high-quality groceries she wanted
in Seoul's supermarkets. But she knew the products were out there and began driving to South Korea's agricultural heartlands to find them, for example, visiting the famous meat market in Majang-dong to procure half a cow's worth of beef, which she would then split with her co-workers.
"While I was trying to figure out why it was so difficult to have access to great quality, fresh food in Korea, I got to know some farmers and fishermen,
and they had exactly the same issue of not being able to find customers," she told AFP.
“Korean farmers are proud of the fact that they can produce such nice quality products, but it is vextremely difficult for them to get to the consumer," she said.
At first, Kim said she thought about setting up a farmers' market, before abandoning the idea as too unwieldy and - more importantly - unhelpful
for producers, who don't have the time to travel to Seoul.
Lightbulb moment
It was a lightbulb moment when Kim realised 'if we can make this work for both consumers and producers, it would probably be a breakthrough for the entire industry'.
Kurly customers - initially urban working women but now a diverse cross section of society - can order rare beef, hand-made bread, or pick one of more than a dozen varieties of local, hard-to-find apples
by 11pm and be guaranteed delivery by 7am the next morning.
As with companies from Amazon to Uber Eats, the rapid-fast shipments rely largely on gig economy drivers, and Kurly has not been immune to the global industry-wide complaints of overwork and poor conditions. But consumer convenience has proved key to the app's success - even though Kim says she's most proud of how the complex data-driven logistics
network she's built supports South Korea's beleaguered farmers.
Kim launched Market Kurly with 30 products, in
cluding her beloved kale, which was supplied by farmer Hwang Han-soo, who has been growing or
ganic vegetables for 30 years at his farm in Gyeonggi province.
Hwang said his kale was originally popular only with cancer patients for its perceived health benefits. He sold so little of it, he considered switching crops, but the pleas of one of his terminally-ill customers in Busan convinced him to keep going.
Farming is tough in South Korea, Hwang said, owing to thin profit margins and a reliance on hardto-find overseas workers amid dwindling interest in the industry from young South Koreans. But working with Kurly has helped.
"In the early days of Kurly, we sold around 20 to 30 bags each day (but now) our average daily sales is around 800 bags of kale, he said.
Part of the growth can be attributed to changing consumer trends, with kale now popular with young women who see it as a trendy health food, Hwang
said, but Kurly's next-day cold-chain logistics net
SOPHIE KIM
work also plays a key role.
Social costs
"It takes less than a day to go from harvesting to the
consumer's doorstep," he said, adding that before Kurly came along it would take two or three days for his kale to make it to stores.
Next-day delivery services are very helpful because it is a system that goes directly from the farm
to the consumers, while Kurly also handled all the promotion and marketing, he said, adding, "I can focus on farming."
Hwang also said reading reviews of his products on Kurly's app allowed him to feel more connected to the people who eat what he grows.
South Korea's next-day delivery apps including Kurly and rival Coupang Fresh have been criticised
for the strain they put on delivery drivers, with local media reporting on occasional deaths from extreme
overwork, as workers make scores of deliveries each night.
The rise of such services has also sucked gig workers from other crucial sectors including city taxis, where the supply crunch is so severe that the
Seoul government recently hiked basic fares in a bid to entice more drivers to provide late-night services.
It is important for South Korea's unicorns like Market Kurly to take into account the social costs of their business models, said Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises and Start-ups Lee Young.
"It's very possible for these platform companies to contribute to society," she said. "Market Kurly is a very good example because it has created a very innovative idea and they have gone through multiple struggles until they achieved current success."
AFP
This is the green of Saudi. 50,000 fans will repeat this chant behind me in Qatar, instead of only 5,000 fans in Russia
Bader Turkistani
For the past two decades, Bader Turkistani has crisscrossed the globe to cheer on the Saudi national football team, leading crowds in poetic chants that have made him a social media star. This year's World Cup in neighbouring Qatar, by contrast, has the feel of a home game - Doha is a mere two-hour flight from his base in Jeddah, on the Red Sea
coast.
The close proximity has Turkistani dreaming of a ferocious turnout by football-mad Saudis, the kind of support he
says could help the Green Falcons break out of the group stage for the first time in nearly three decades.
"The Saudi national team is considered to be playing on its land, playing among its
fans. Having the World Cup in Qatar is like having it in Saudi Arabia," the 37-year-old
engineer told AFP. "A simple border separates us. We will be present in very large numbers and fill the stadiums with 50,000 to 60,000 fans."
On a recent afternoon, wearing a white-and-green scarf over his traditional white thobe, Turkistani gave a preview of some of the chants he hopes will propel the Green Falcons to glory.
"This is the green of Saudi," he sang into an electronic megaphone, as a friend
pounded a drum made of animal hide. "Oh Saudi, we have come."
The stands of the Jeddah stadium behind him were empty, but he is certain the scene will be completely different once play gets underway.
"50,000 fans will repeat this chant behind me in Qatar, instead of only 5,000
fans in Russia," he said. "This enthusiasm is transmitted to the players. We hope that we, as fans, will bring out the players'
High hopes
In total, Turkistani estimates he has watched more than 100 international
matches played by the Green Falcons over the years, most of them documented in a
bulging photo album he eagerly shows off to visitors. He also leads the fan association for the prestigious Jeddah-based Saudi club Al-ahly.
Beyond its high cost, the hobby can be trying in other ways - while on the road,
Turkistani has struggled with language barriers, fiercely cold weather and unfamiliar foreign food.
"In Qatar, all these things will be very convenient for us," he said.
Saudi officials are putting on 240 weekly flights linking the kingdom to Qatar, up from six normally, and easing overland travel during the tournament, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said
last month.
At an event last week marking the World Cup trophy's stop in Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Alkassim, secretary general of the national football association, said that the Saudi turnout would be high enough "to exceed half the capacity of the stadium in each match.”
Once Saudi fans are on Qatari soil, Turkistani will be ready for them, having stocked up on green-and-white t-shirts, plastic blowhorns, drums and balloons to distribute.
Turkistani sees it as an opportunity to showcase the unique elements of Saudi
fan culture - especially the songs - that he considers 'a cultural heritage' and that have earned him nearly 280,000 followers on Twitter.
As for the Green Falcons' chances, Turkistani is well aware they face a tough fight in group play against the likes of Argentina, Mexico and Poland.
He is confident, however, the squad will profit from what he describes as homefield advantage, and he expects the other competing Arab countries - host Qatar, Tunisia and Morocco - to benefit, as well.
"The Saudi and Gulf fans will support the Arab teams," he said. "This makes me expect the Arab teams will surprise every
one and go far at this World Cup."