Gumaetan Market Transforms into Youth-Focused Food Market

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Gumaetan Market in Suwon will be transformed into a Korean-style food market where young chefs can cultivate their dreams.

Suwon announced on the 5th that Gumaetan Market, located in Maetan-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, was selected as the target of the outstanding market development project in the '2021 Gyeonggi Province Specialized Market Recruitment Project,' and plans to allocate a total of 1 billion won—500 million won each from provincial and city budgets—to specialize the market into a food market.

Gumaetan Market is the only traditional market in Yeongdeungpo-gu, with 117 shops operating as of last year and receiving 420 daily visitors, functioning as a locally-focused commercial area at the center of daily life.

In particular, Ajou University, apartment complexes, and multi-unit residential buildings are densely concentrated nearby, with a fixed population of over 50,000 residing within a 1-kilometer radius.

The city plans to maximize these advantages of Gumaetan Market by strengthening food supply functions and nurturing young chefs to establish a local flagship brand as a Korean-style food market.

First, the city plans to help develop competitiveness by benchmarking advanced markets and shops and conducting shop-by-shop consulting to enhance functions centered on competitive food and food ingredients.

Additionally, taking advantage of the proximity to universities, which facilitates youth influx, the city will select and foster young chefs, secure excellent resources, and enhance the market's sustainability.

The city will improve facilities including lighting, flooring, and entrances, enhance environments such as food zones and young chef development spaces, and pursue linked projects to strengthen communication with local residents and university students.

Previously, Gumaetan Market was selected as a pilot project site for developing and constructing an 'untact smart marketplace platform' to respond to changing distribution environments due to COVID-19.

The city anticipates synergistic effects that can be achieved by linking this food market project.

Furthermore, through the '2019 Shared Growth-Type Gyeonggi Sharing Market Project,' a local community development project involving diverse economic actors is in its final stages.

A city official stated, "We will actively pursue this project so that small business owners gain more vitality in markets facing difficulties due to COVID-19, and the market can become one that changes through collective participation."