Time now for our "Life & Info" segment... where we focus on information useful for your everyday life whether you are in Korea or somewhere else in the world.
Today, we are going to discuss some traditional Korean products that are going viral online, but not here in Korea but in other countries.
We have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung in the studio.
So Hyesung, traditional Korean products are proving hits overseas, which ones?
Yeah Mark, I'm sure you've heard of Korean beauty products like facial masks that went viral online and offline abroad. But really, some traditional Korean products have topped the best selling list on Amazon.
Ho-mi, a Korean traditional hand plow gardening tool, became one of the top ten best selling gardening tools.
Yongju Daejanggan ho-mi is hand-made by sixty-six year old blacksmith Seok No-ki.
He has been working in his workshop for more than four decades.
His workshop is located in Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, two hours drive south from Seoul.
There are mainly three types of ho-mis, small, medium, large with different lengths and weights.
The best selling one is 230 grams.
Each one takes about 30 minutes to make, processed multiple times in the forge to shape the iron and make it durable.
Good material, the angle of the iron, delicate lines. These are the keys to what makes a good ho-mi."
He shipped over 2-thousand ho-mis abroad, to countries like the U.S. and Australia, last year, and around 1,000 were sold abroad in the first quarter this year.
"Good material, delicately hand-made and sturdy. This is what differentiates our ho-mis from mass-produced gardening tools. They didn't become popular overnight though. After putting ho-mis on Amazon around 10 years ago, I only sold a handful. Then in 2018, it suddenly became popular thanks to word of mouth and good reviews."
If you type in ho-mis on Amazon, Youngju Daejanggan homis comes up first.
Ratings are at 4-point-six out of five.
Among the reviews are "this is the best gardening tool I have ever met", "hand made the old way school", and one saying "...Our gardener admired it recently, so I purchased one for her.
There are even YouTube videos showing how to use the products, one called "Ho-mi, the new gardening tool," praising how it easy it is to use and how it doesn't put any strain on your wrist.
And just to add, the local government of Gyeongsangbukdo province designated Seok as a “top master craftsman last year.
You may wonder why it's so popular abroad. In countries like the U.S., Canada, land is huge... big farming machines rather than small plowers are developed because they have so much land over here. Korea is obviously much smaller.
Delicate, hand made tools have been more developed, used by farmers to plant seeds and remove weeds as just a few weeds could ruin the ground.
I have one with me right now, from Mr. Seok.
The thinnest part is used to take out weeds.
If you take a closer look, you see how the thickness of the iron is diff