On October 15, AmorePacific (President and CEO, Suh Kyung-bae) held a signing ceremony with Chungbuk Oriental Medicine Center located in Jecheon for the cultivation of the high-quality oriental herb, as well as quality certification and the supply of the products to secure the stable procurement of oriental herb resources grown in the country. This ceremony is intended to keep the supply and demand of raw materials in balance for premium cosmetic brands such as Sulhwasoo and Hannule, which use the high-quality oriental herb from our country alone. 
The Jecheon region has been one of the three largest markets of the oriental herb for medicines since the Chosun Dynasty. The herbal medicines in this region still account for 30% of the production and 70% of the distributions throughout the country. AmorePacific buys nine kinds of the oriental herbs grown in this region (such as milk vetch root, polygonatums, Korean angelica root and cnidium, etc), which are certified under GAP (Good Agricultural Practices). With a decline in the production of domestic herbal materials as well as a flood of foreign low-grade oriental herbal materials (which contain a lot of heavy metals), since the recent opening of the domestic market to the imported goods, AmorePacific has been striving to secure a stable supply of high-quality and safe raw materials from within Korea. Last month, they also had a signing ceremony with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Kangwon National University to make the 3,300㎡ herbal farm for AmorePacific. 
Ok-seob Lee, vice president of the Cosmetics Technology Institute in AmorePacific said, “We will make sure to provide our customers with safe and reliable products by using the high-quality herbal materials grown in the domestic areas only.” 
By the same token, AmorePacific is working to develop eco-friendly and safe ingredients, placing top priority on their customers’ safety and health. In addition to using 100% domestic herbal materials for Sulhwasoo and Hannule, AmorePacific launched “Innisfree Eco Recipe Line”, a line of certified organic products developed under the standard of eco-friendly organic management of the growing methods of raw materials for cosmetics as well as all of the processes during and after production. AmorePacific will continue to expand the number of their eco-friendly raw materials in the future. 
Note 1. GAP(Good Agricultural Practices): A informational system for consumers regarding 
1) the agricultural environment from production to harvest and packaging, to secure the safety of medicinal herbs, 
2) the hazardous elements such as pesticides, heavy metals or harmful living things like viruses in the soil and water and 3) how to manage them as they can remain in the raw materials.