[Next Breeding] Cabbage ‘Cheongmyeong Autumn’ Overcomes Heat and Clubroot to Win Presidential Award…NH Nongwoo Bio Sweet Pepper Targets Europe

Chinese cabbage is a cool-season crop that grows well at 18–20 degrees Celsius. Recently, however, summer temperatures in Gangwon’s highland areas often exceed 30 degrees. Early fall Chinese cabbage shipped around Chuseok must be planted in the fields during the height of summer and withstand the heat. According to the industry, Japan’s Sakata Seed variety ‘Chugwang’ has long accounted for nearly 90% of the seed market for this cropping type.

NH Nongwoo Bio received the Presidential Award, the top prize at the “2026 Korea Excellent Variety Award” hosted by the Korea Seed & Variety Service, for ‘Cheongmyeong Autumn,’ a Chinese cabbage that penetrated this market as a domestic variety. The same company’s Italiano-type sweet pepper ‘19ITP4719,’ developed with the European market in mind, received the Prime Minister’s Award. The Korea Agricultural Technology News met the key figures who developed the two varieties.

Cheongmyeong Autumn Had to Combine the Traits of Summer and Fall Chinese Cabbage

Director Chae Won-ki, whom we met at NH Nongwoo Bio’s Yeoju Breeding Research Institute in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, first explained the difficulties of breeding for the early fall cropping type. Because the crop is planted in highland areas in midsummer and must pass through a high-temperature period, heat tolerance and the ability to form heads under high temperatures are essential. On the other hand, because shipment takes place around Chuseok—effectively in the fall—the variety must also have the quality of fall Chinese cabbage, with suitable moisture content and good taste when made into kimchi. “It was difficult to breed because the variety had to have the traits of both summer Chinese cabbage and fall Chinese cabbage,” Chae said. “Chinese cabbage prefers cool climates, so when the environment deteriorates it weakens and disease frequently occurs.”

The research team devoted particular effort to clubroot. Among clubroot types, race 4 is highly virulent, making it difficult to secure resistance using existing Chinese cabbage resources. The team brought disease resistance from ‘ECD4,’ a turnip genetic resource, and selected lines using pathological inoculation tests and marker-assisted selection (MAS). They began line development in 2003, created combinations in 2015, conducted regional adaptation tests in 2016–2017, released the variety in 2018, and completed plant variety protection registration (No. 8295) in July 2020. “It took a long time because we were bringing turnip traits up into the form of Chinese cabbage,” Chae recalled.

Root vigor was first confirmed in the field. According to Chae, when a major flood occurred in the Chuncheon area, a field where Chugwang and Cheongmyeong Autumn had been planted together was submerged. While many Chugwang plants were damaged, many Cheongmyeong Autumn plants survived even after flooding.

The results were reflected in the numbers. Cheongmyeong Autumn recorded sales of 1.54 billion won in 2025, and cumulative sales from 2018 through October 2025 reached 6.05 billion won. Its average annual sales growth rate over the past three years is 18%. According to calculations by the company based on cultivation area data from the Agricultural Outlook Center of the Korea Rural Economic Institute and its own sales, Cheongmyeong Autumn accounted for 3,848 ha, or 29%, of the nation’s 13,182 ha of fall Chinese cabbage acreage in 2025. Initially, it was limited to the early fall cropping type harvested from late September to early October, but as it gained recognition for stable crop performance even amid abnormal weather, cultivation expanded across the overall fall cropping type harvested from late September to mid-November.

Recently, it has also been used as a follow-up crop planted from late July to early August in double-cropping systems at elevations of around 800 meters. Regarding yield, Chae explained, “Because open-field crops are not grown in controlled environments, it is not easy to quantify, but you can consider it to have increased by about 10–20% compared with existing varieties. This is not a field like semiconductors, where gains of 100% or 200% are possible, so an improvement of this level is very significant.”

However, Chae assessed that Cheongmyeong Autumn is also approaching its limits. He said temperatures have risen far beyond what Chinese cabbage can endure, reaching 35 degrees Celsius, creating conditions where it is virtually impossible to grow the crop. “When temperatures rise, all kinds of diseases attach themselves, so for the next variety we are preparing in the direction of multiple disease resistance, including strong resistance to clubroot and viral diseases,” he said. With very few Chinese cabbage materials that are strong against heat, work is also under way to find resources in other crops such as radish.

Chae, who is in his 27th year at NH Nongwoo Bio, said of the award, “As a breeder, I have worked hard and lived diligently, and that has brought me this honor. I am happy that the varieties I created help farmers increase their income and contribute to the growth of the agricultural economy through our Chinese cabbage.”

Sweet Pepper ‘19ITP4719’ Opens a New Segment in a Market Dominated by Rijk Zwaan

‘19ITP4719,’ which received the Prime Minister’s Award, is an Italiano-type sweet pepper for protected cultivation in Europe. It is grown in greenhouse complexes in Almería, southern Spain, a major European sweet pepper production area, and supplied to various parts of Europe including Germany, Norway, and Denmark. Locally, it is mainly consumed fresh in salads, similar to Korea’s crunchy cucumber-flavored chili pepper. According to the export performance statement the company submitted to the Korea Seed & Variety Service, varieties from the Dutch company Rijk Zwaan account for 70–75% of this market.

Jeong Yeong-ho, head of NH Nongwoo Bio’s Pepper Research Team 2, cited the variety’s ability to satisfy farmers, distributors, and consumers at the same time as its competitive strength. It has resistance to powdery mildew and good fruit set during low-temperature periods, resulting in high production. Its storability is excellent, so the fruit does not soften easily during long-distance transport, and its rounded fruit tip reduces damage during distribution. Another differentiating point is that it ripens from green to a deep red while its sugar content increases. “Varieties that taste good usually have low production, but this variety has all three: taste, yield, and storability,” Jeong said. “In a market where the existing Italiano type had been eaten like a green chili pepper, it has moved into a different, taste-centered segment and, as I understand it, sells at a relatively high price locally.”

Export performance has risen sharply every year since commercialization. Seed exports increased from $220,000 in 2023 to $650,000 in 2024 and $1.12 million in 2025, and reached $900,000 in the first half of this year alone. The company expects annual exports to reach $1.6 million to $1.8 million. The export unit price in 2025 is around $20,000 per kilogram of seed. Jeong estimated the market share at about 20%.

Development took more than 10 years. Work on the Italiano type began around 2010, and full-fledged export breeding began in 2015 with support from the Golden Seed Project (GSP). In the variety name, “19” refers to 2019, the year the combination was created, and “ITP” stands for Italiano Type Pepper. Genetic resources were collected directly through local business trips, and combinations made in Korea were sent to Almería for two to three years of local evaluation before commercialization in 2023 after customer approval. Unlike the Mediterranean climate, where temperatures do not fall below zero even in winter, domestic testing in winter faced limitations because of the high burden of heating costs. “It is very meaningful that we developed it in Korea and applied it to that market despite the differences in the local environment,” Jeong explained.

The researcher who developed the variety retired last year upon reaching retirement age. The company has now transferred all Italiano-type breeding lines to its subsidiary in Antalya, Türkiye, which has an environment similar to Almería, and is conducting primary selection and adaptation tests locally.

“Entering at the beginning is difficult, but once you get in, the next steps become easier,” Jeong said. “While this variety is maintained for another two to three years, we will continue to release follow-up varieties with added disease resistance.” He added, “At first, who would have been willing to test seeds from a Korean company with no name recognition? The very fact that our variety is being sold in a market where European global companies sell is meaningful.”

Breeding Takes More Than 10 Years: “Varieties Alone Cannot Stop Climate Change…They Must Be Backed by Investment in Infrastructure”

Both varieties took a long time to reach the market. Cheongmyeong Autumn took 15 years from line development to release, while 19ITP4719 took around 13 years from the start of development to commercialization. Chae said that for such achievements to continue, variety development alone is not enough; cultivation sites and the research base must also change together.

In particular, he pointed out that the response to climate change should not be left to variety development alone. The measures he has proposed at various climate change response meetings are threefold: predicting temperature changes by combining AI and ICT and improving cultivation environments through facilities such as irrigation and drainage systems and shading; shifting cropping patterns to avoid midsummer cultivation and expanding storage facilities to store spring-grown production and fill supply gaps; and breeding varieties that can be cultivated while at least slightly avoiding high-temperature periods.

Concerns were also raised about the industrial base. Chae pointed out that although the government is presenting digital breeding as a core element of national projects, the smart farm, imaging, drone, climate observation, and genomic data infrastructure required for it would cost at least 30 billion won, which is difficult for domestic seed companies to bear. “The budget for national projects in the agricultural sector has been greatly reduced,” he said. “Once seed sovereignty is lost, it is difficult to restore, and we could find ourselves in a situation where we give up our food supply. Therefore, budgets must continue to be secured from the perspective of protecting a key industry.”