NIFS rolls its sleeve up to make abalone culture industry leap forward again by promptly solving the pending issues and strengthening its global competitiveness. 

To that end, NIFS launched the 「Industry-Government-Institute Cooperative Association for another leap forward of abalone industry」 in Wando on May 14 (Tue), engaged by Jeollanamdo Province, the JeollaNamdo Institute of Ocean & Fisheries, Wando-Gun, the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), Suhyup Jeonnam Regional Headquarters, the Korea Federation of Abalone Industry Association, etc. 

The Cooperative Association consists of several divisions including seed, breeding, environment, disaster response, and policy. It will focus on developing superior varieties, mortality reduction technology, processing and distribution technoology as well as advancing aquaculture techniques and finding ways for export expansion with the experts from each division.

The Association also has plans to encourage more participation of relevant organizations and companies, monitor the implementation status two times a year, and identify research projects and policy on a regular basis ahead. 

The yields of abalone culture industry were 20 tons in 2000, but it reached 24,000 tons in 2022, 1,200 times increased yields in 20 years. 

Recently, however, the industry has been experiencing many difficulties including constracted seafood consumption under recessions, mortality caused by climate change and repeated natural disasters, and fall in the price bacause of concentrated shipment from April to July.