Print This PageLove of Agriculture Led Me to Seminis
One Man's Journey to Become a Watermelon Expert in Korea
A national love affair: In the mid-1990s, Seminis transformed the watermelon industry in Korea with an ultra-sweet hybrid named Honeymoon. Today, Honeymoon is a household name in Korea and a powerful consumer brand. The fruits even have official certification stickers to thwart inferior counterfeits. New and improved versions of Honeymoon are currently being trialed.
Eric Na, Regional Product Manager- Asia Cucurbit, reflects on how he came to have such a strong passion for his rather unpopular career choice.
When I say I'm employed in agriculture, it often leaves others bewildered. Some people give me piteous glances as if to ask why a young man like me is doing such an old-fashioned job – the work of an old fogey. They tell me that in today's Korea I can easily switch jobs.
Even the agricultural college that I graduated from has changed its name to avoid the stigma; it's now the "Life and Environment" College. At a recent alumni meeting, I described what I do for a living: "I sell watermelons for a company!" I said. Peals of laughter followed. They probably thought that I was running a watermelon stall.
Frankly speaking, I did not choose agriculture with a long-term plan. In college, I started on this course as the result of a score I got on my entrance exam. At the time, there were 40 students in my major. Today, I am the only one who has completed the coursework and stayed in agriculture.
After a lot of discouragement following my graduation, I discovered Seminis by accident on an internet recruitment site and was hired soon afterwards. It was not easy. During my first days, I was amazed at the complexity of the business and how difficult it was for farmers and seed companies to be successful. I worried time and time again if I had bet my life on a declining industry. It didn't help matters that I dropped dozens of melons on the ground. "What did you learn in college?" my senior colleagues would tease.
As a life cycle manager, I set up marketing plans based on information collected in the course of cultivating cucurbit (cucumbers, squashes and melons) in Korea, China and Japan. One of my duties is to wake up at five in the morning and go to the watermelon auction in Garak-dong, Seoul. I inspect and taste the watermelons that come from the country. I propose the price on my own and study the watermelons. My first impression of this market was very harsh. Today, it feels like home, as do the watermelon greenhouses. In fact, I've been spending so much time in the greenhouses, that I have a year-round tan.
In this business, I've learned that field experience is a must. You don't meet buyers at luxurious hotels or make deals on a laptop computer. You go to the customer. For example, when doing business in China, you will stay at an inn located five or six hours from the city and work with local growers on their farms.
Here in Korea, there is a watermelon called "Honeymoon" that declined in popularity with consumers due to competition from inferior copies. To solve this problem, we actually went to the grocery stores every weekend to market our melons. We recommended that the customers taste the watermelon, shouting, "This is the masterpiece! Very luxurious!" By the time our voices grew hoarse, Honeymoon had recovered its popularity. I will never forget the celebration we had with farmers, whose livelihoods we helped restore.
Such a long time working and living among the watermelons has unconsciously made me love them. I want to be an expert who can recognize the sweetness, freshness or seed variety simply by touching or smelling the fruit. In the world of seed here in Korea, you have to work at least for 10 years to be treated as a junior expert. In this sense, the last two and a half years that I've spent at Seminis are just the beginning.
People may not always respect the person who has stuck to his or her own way for a long time. Still, I love agriculture, and I'm on the right track. I will follow this road together with the farmers. Today, I'm going to Garak Market in the early morning as usual, where the lovely watermelons are waiting for me.
Related Story: How the Watermelon Got Transformed -- Sacramento Bee -- July 21, 2007.
Seminis: www.seminis.com
Seminis Korea: www.seminiskorea.co.kr
