Ulsan Nonghyup staff donate to hometown love fund for 4th straight year

Staff at Ulsan Nonghyup have been donating to local governments under the hometown love fund program for the fourth consecutive year, aiming to boost the regional economy.

This year, employees pooled 87.55 million won ($65,500) in hometown love fund contributions, delivering 13.75 million won to Buk-gu on Oct. 6, 15.3 million won to Nam-gu on Sept. 22 and 13.5 million won to Dong-gu on Sept. 15, before presenting 32.05 million won to Ulju-gun on Tuesday.

Since the hometown love fund regime took effect in 2023, Ulsan Nonghyup staff have donated 42.95 million won to Ulju-gun in the program's first year, followed by 4.4 million won in 2024, 45 million won in 2025 and 32.05 million won this year — bringing their four-year total for Ulju-gun alone to 160.4 million won.

Under the hometown love fund system, individuals may donate to any local government outside their own registered address and receive tax deductions and thank-you gifts in return; the donated funds are used to strengthen local fiscal capacity and support regional economic development projects.

At a meeting held alongside the presentation ceremony, participants agreed that Ulju-gun and Nonghyup would work together to broaden public participation in the program and develop thank-you gifts using locally grown agricultural and livestock products.

Ulju-gun County Executive Lee Sun-geol said the donations, given consistently since the program's first year, would be put to meaningful use for the county's development.