Haman, Gyeongsangnam-do, is one of the main producers of watermelons in Korea, occupying about 20% of the Korean watermelon facility cultivation area. Haman watermelons were first exported to Japan in 1995 and pioneered the export of Korean watermelons. Gwangil Farming Corporative (GFC) has been striving to promote the reputation of high-quality, high sugar content Haman watermelons to the world. Their steady popularity gains not only in Japan but also in Hong Kong are also thanks to the hard work of corporation. Gwangil Farming Corporation (GFC) is pioneering the future of Haman watermelons by cultivating new watermelons such as ‘black skin watermelon’, which is both seedless and colored.

#Haman, the Home of Winter Watermelon in Korea
Haman watermelons are shipped from around January, the winter season. They break the perception that watermelon is eaten in summer and are high in sugar content because Haman has an abundant amount of sunlight and has a large daily temperature difference is large. There is a place producing and distributing watermelons in Haman, which presents the most delicious watermelons the earliest to Koreans. Founded in 2005, GFC harvests not only regular watermelon but also varieties of colored watermelons such as black skin watermelons, mango watermelons, and golden watermelons. They are mainly supplied to large Korean retailers such as E-Mart.
GFC also actively exports its products. Although it is not large quantity, it has been steadily exporting watermelon to Japan even since before established, and from 2020, it is also exporting watermelons to Hong Kong. Park Bun-yeon, CEO of GFC recalled, “Since I was a latecomer in the regular watermelon market, I needed to challenge it with different watermelon. Then I came across colored watermelons and have been focusing on cultivating colored watermelons along with regular watermelons.”

#Colored Watermelons, Either Black on the Outside or Yellow on the Inside
In 2007, Haman succeeded in commercializing colored watermelons for the first time in the Korea, and GFC played a crucial role here. Seedless black skin watermelons also originated here and have a higher sugar content than regular watermelons, crispy flesh, and maintain the sugar content even in heavy rainy seasons. The problem was that they were not easy to cultivate in Korea since they were a European variety. After four years of trial and error, CEO Park Bun-yeon finally succeeded in settling the seedless black skin watermelon in Haman and contributed to making the city known as Korea’s first seedless watermelon producer.

In 2011, GFC made a splendid record of exporting 12 tons of seedlee black skin watermelon to Japan and succeeded in cultivating mango watermelon and golden watermelon after seedless black skin watermelon. Mango watermelon looks but is yellow inside like mango and tastes the same as watermelon. Golden watermelon is red inside, just like a normal watermelon, but is yellow outside. Both items are targeting the niche market of general watermelon and gaining popularity among consumers. GFC has registered mango watermelon and golden watermelon as trademarks.

#Only High Sugar Watermelons with 11 brix or Higher are Selected
Of course, the main product of GFC is regular watermelon, which has much larger proportion than colored watermelon. The GFC has been selecting and shipping watermelons with 11 brix or higher by adopting a non-destructive sugar content meter since 2008. Watermelons supplied to large Korean distributors are labeled with sugar levels from 11brix to 13 brix, which is a sign of confidence in the quality.
Going forward, CEO Park plans to expand the cultivation area of colored watermelon cultivation and produce colored watermelons based on the GFC’s know-hows in Jeolla-do, Chungcheong-do and Gyeongsang-do near Haman. This is to ensure that colored watermelons can be distributed in the market even after their harvest in Haman ends in June. CEO Park said, “I would not have come this far without my love for watermelon. It will approach overseas consumers with honest quality so that Gwangil can remind them of ‘colored watermelon’ in the future.”