A cargo ship running between Jeju and Qingdao, China, will begin regular service on the 29th. It is the long-awaited news of a regular route for the bottled water brand "Jeju Samdasoo," produced by the Jeju Development Corporation. The Jeju Development Corporation has expected that the launch of this cargo service would widen the export path for Jeju Samdasoo.
But for some reason, there has been no positive talk about the ship's launch. With the start of service, articles should have surfaced saying that several tons of Samdasoo were exported to the Chinese market, so why is it so quiet? The reason is that Samdasoo's export performance has not yet met expectations.
According to the retail industry on the 14th, a 7,500-ton-class cargo ship will begin regular service between Jeju and Qingdao, China, starting on the 29th of this month. Based on an estimate of cargo volume before the regular service, it is projected that 3,435 containers a year will carry goods back and forth between Jeju and Qingdao.
This cargo volume falls short of expectations. When estimating the import-export cargo volume needed to break even while pushing for a direct route between Jeju and China, it was tallied that at least 15,000 containers a year would have to move.
The problem is that, in this scenario, losses for Jeju Province are unavoidable. When Jeju Province signed an operating contract for regular service with China's Shandong Ocean-Shipping Group, it agreed to cover up to 7.2 billion won per year in loss expense if there was a shortage of import-export cargo. To avoid this, exports of Jeju Samdasoo must increase, and other cargo volumes must also grow.
A retail industry official said, "ORION's Jeju Lava Water at least helped fill the containers." Based on the estimated cargo volume as of today, ORION's lava water plans to use 3,124 containers for exports to China. That means 91% of the estimated cargo volume is ORION's share.
Kim Hwang-guk, a Jeju Provincial Council member (People Power Party), said, "If trade expands, opening the Qingdao route is positive, but if losses occur, it is questionable what benefit will return to residents," adding, "Passion led, but pushing ahead hastily is the problem."
The Jeju Development Corporation is inevitably in a hurry as well. For a while, the corporation's top priority has been increasing export volume. Baek Kyung-hun, head of the Jeju Development Corporation, said in Mar., "We are in talks with local distributors to expand entry into the Chinese-speaking market, and we are specifically finalizing sales talks with two to three distributors in Shandong Province."
The retail industry also argues that they should have produced results early, like ORION. In 2023, ORION signed a contract with a mainland China beer distribution and sales company for sales and distribution in China and announced an entry into the Chinese market in 2024. A retail industry official said, "Lava water, which struggled in the Korean market, looked overseas early to find a way to survive, whereas Samdasoo, facing a slowdown in the domestic bottled water market, is belatedly seeking opportunities abroad," adding, "It is regrettable that the slogans ran ahead of the results."
Even so, Jeju Province is still drawing an optimistic blueprint. Although cargo volume has declined due to the tariff war between the United States and China and the impact of the economic downturn, it expects volumes to grow in the future. For now, most of the import-export volume with China goes through Busan Port and Gunsan Port, but the view is that the volume will eventually have to be dispersed. Attention is on whether the situation will unfold as expected and the export path for Jeju Samdasoo will widen.