The Korea Forest Service (Commissioner: Lim Sang-seop) announced on the 2nd that Kim Byung-soo (59) CEO of Beoseotmaru and a black fungus grower from Jinan Jeollabuk-do has been selected as the ‘Forester of the Month’ for September.

Kim Byung-soo started cultivating black fungus in Jinan Jeollabuk-do after returning to the countryside in 2013. At the time he began his forestry work domestic production of black fungus was only about 61 tons compared to the total production of 20000 tons of shiitake mushrooms.

Driven by a passion to promote Korean black fungus Kim started cultivating domestic black fungus varieties such as ‘Yonga’ ‘Hyunyu’ ‘Geoni’ and ‘Saeyan’ and distributed mushroom growing substrates to foresters nationwide. He has also consistently worked to produce high-quality mushrooms by developing the mushroom liquid spawn inoculation method and an inoculation device capable of self-sterilization.

As a result of these efforts Kim now produces over 100 tons of high-quality mushrooms annually including 900000 bags of mushroom substrate 60 tons of black fungus and 30 tons of white fungus. His flagship products including ‘Mushrooms As They Are (dried mushroom assortment)’ mushroom pickles and mushroom extract generate annual sales of 2 billion KRW.

Park Eun-sik Director-General of the Forest Industry Policy Bureau at the Korea Forest Service stated “We will continue to discover new forest products so that consumers can enjoy a wider variety of delicious and healthy forest products” adding “We will enhance product value and competitiveness through the development of integrated forest product brands and further expand policies that support our foresters.”

