[Agri Leaders] 600 Million-Won Tomato Greenhouse Burns Down After One Year… Changwon’s “Woongtopia” Turns Profitable After Four Years of Losses

According to the Rural Development Administration, the productivity of greenhouse tomatoes is around 80–100 kg per pyeong. This is the result of the spread of data-based cultivation through initiatives such as the Smart Farm Innovation Valley. “Woongtopia,” a tomato smart farm in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, produces 120 kg per pyeong (about 36 kg per square meter) in a good crop year. On a 1,200-pyeong (3,967㎡) site, its annual sales in 2025 are about 240 million won.

Behind this growth were two failures. In his first startup, open-field green onions, he lost all his capital within a year, and the greenhouse he had struggled to build caught fire just one year after completion. We met Seo Jin-woong, 32, CEO of Woongtopia, who rebuilt his farm after overcoming those two failures.

A 14-Meter Dutch Glass Greenhouse Set His Career Path… It Began at a Waste Landfill

Seo, who did not come from a farming family, decided on his career path while attending Daegu Natural Science High School (now Daegu Agricultural Meister High School). Through activities with the Korea Future Farmers Association (FFK) and 4-H, he saw agriculture as a blue ocean and entered the Department of Vegetable Crops at Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries (now Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries) in 2014. His direction became more concrete during a training trip to the Netherlands in his second year. The greenhouses he had seen in Korea were all low, old-style facilities installed 20 years earlier, but the glass greenhouses there were 14 meters high, about the height of a four-story building.

His perspective broadened, but the problem was money. “I made up my mind to study properly and start a facility-agriculture business, but the barriers to entry—having to buy farmland and build greenhouses—were the issue,” he said. “I chose open-field green onions as a detour because I judged that they required less investment in farm machinery and had high added value.”

In February 2017, in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, a broken toilet popped out during rotary tillage in the green onion field he had bought with the 15 million won he had saved at the age of 22. It was farmland only on paper; underground, it was practically a landfill for construction and industrial waste. According to Seo, the previous owner became unreachable, and the disposal costs fell entirely on him. Green onions would not grow in soil mixed with cement powder, and within a year of starting his business he had lost all his capital.

A Greenhouse Built with the Entire 600 Million-Won Project Cost Financed by Loans

What held him back when he was about to quit farming and look for a job was people. Conversations with senior members of young farmers’ organizations changed his mind, and a university classmate helped him find a site in Changwon.
 

With this help as a stepping stone, he used funds for fostering successor agricultural managers to purchase the site in March 2018, and in June of the same year he was selected for NongHyup Bank’s “Comprehensive Smart Farm Fund for Young Farmers.” Excluding the farmland, the total project cost was about 600 million won for a plastic-film greenhouse. This funding provides 100% financing without self-payment for facility costs of up to 1 billion won. Based on this, he completed the greenhouse in November that year.

A Fire One Year After Completion… He Lost Export and Franchise Supply Volumes

In December 2019, a fire burned nearly half the greenhouse. The cause of the fire was not officially identified, but Seo believes it was an electrical issue. “Greenhouses should use flame-retardant wires, but the construction company used ordinary household wires,” he said. “Rats stripped the insulation, causing a short circuit. Because the wires were highly flammable, the fire spread all the way through.”

The insurance payout fell far short of the restoration costs. Seo poured all the money he had saved from a year of farming into repayment and restoration, and even took out additional loans. Losses continued for about four years, and only in 2024 did the farm turn profitable. Immediately after the fire, some 20 members of the Young Farmers Association brought in workers from their own farms and even trucks to help with demolition. Work that would have taken three to four days was finished in a single day, and two and a half months after the demolition was completed, he finished replanting in March of the following year.

This was also when the distribution structure changed. According to Seo, before the fire he handled volumes exported to Japan through Gyeongnam Trading and supplies to Burger King and McDonald’s via Shinsegae Food, but when he could no longer meet the required supply volumes, other farms took his place. He filled that gap with direct parcel-delivery sales.

Energy Costs Account for 30% of Sales… The Three Winter Months Determine an Entire Crop Cycle

Woongtopia operates carbon dioxide (CO₂) suppliers, high-pressure sodium supplemental lights, nutrient solution equipment, misting systems and heaters based on the “Magma” complex environmental control system from Green CS (Damyang, South Jeolla Province). It uses a long-term crop cycle, planting in August to September and harvesting from December through June of the following year. Although South Gyeongsang Province has abundant sunlight, ventilation windows are closed in winter, causing CO₂ concentrations to keep falling, so CO₂ suppliers are used to artificially create conditions for photosynthesis.

Supplemental lights are equipment that not many farms adopt because of the installation cost burden. Installation costs are around 100,000 won per pyeong for high-pressure sodium lights and 200,000 won per pyeong for LEDs, and when heating costs and electricity for supplemental lighting are combined, energy costs account for 30% of total sales. Even so, Seo pointed to this equipment as essential. “Production increases by only about 5%, but quality improves and fruit size grows, raising sales by more than 10%,” he said. “In 2025, when sunlight was extremely poor, other farms were producing C- and D-grade tomatoes, but we maintained B grade and were able to ship during a period when prices had soared.” He explained that keeping the trees in good growth condition during the three months from November to January is what secures yields from February to June afterward.

Reducing Wholesale Market Auctions from 40% to 0%… A 3,600-Pyeong Glass Greenhouse and the Search for New Crops

The current distribution mix is 40% online direct sales, 20% Changwon City local food outlets, and 40% wholesale market auctions. The goal is to reduce wholesale market volume to 0% within two years and fully shift to direct sales and local food channels. “If something that was 10,000 won yesterday at the auction market becomes 7,000 won today, the risk is too great from the standpoint of running a farm,” he said. “We are moving to markets where we can control the risk.” He assesses that local food stores operated directly by Changwon City have low commissions and allow him to check inventory through an app and restock products himself, enabling stable use of the surrounding market of about 980,000 people (as of March 2026).

The next step is to secure a 3,600-pyeong (about 11,900㎡) site owned by the Korea Rural Community Corporation near the farm and build a glass greenhouse. He plans to expand in scale but move away from tomatoes in terms of crop strategy. He judges that tomatoes, for which data-based cultivation has become common enough that yields of 80–100 kg per pyeong are now widely accepted, have become easier to enter—and, as a result, have turned into a red ocean crowded with companies and individuals. “I want to discover high-value-added crops for which data has not yet been standardized and create a new market,” he said, adding that he is looking for candidate crops.

Seo advises young people preparing to start smart farms not to overtrust data. “No matter how standardized data becomes, variables remain, and crops do not wait while I deliberate,” he said. “You should learn from farms in the field and start only after experiencing it firsthand, and having mentor farms around you is also one way.”