Pohang adds 9 new hometown tax gift items, bolsters gwamegi and Porangi merchandise

Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, is expanding its lineup of thank-you gifts under the hometown love donation program to give donors more choices while promoting the city's local specialties and tourism resources.

The city announced Wednesday that it had selected nine new gift items from four vendors following a review by its second hometown love donation gift selection committee.

The additions aim to strengthen the competitiveness of established local products such as gwamegi — a traditional half-dried fish — and other seafood, while adding merchandise featuring the city's mascot Porangi to attract donors across a wider range of age groups.

The new gift items include a gwamegi vegetable set and a seaweed-and-vegetable gwamegi set, along with seafood products such as semi-dried squid and boiled octopus.

A honey gift set and stick-format honey packets were also added, as were character merchandise items including a Porangi keyring set, a face-shaped cushion and a lying-down plush doll set.

Among existing gift options in Pohang's hometown love donation program, gwamegi has consistently been the most popular, followed by Pohang love gift certificates, rice and squid.

The city plans to maintain the appeal of its top-selling items while diversifying its food and character product offerings to improve donor satisfaction and broaden participation across all generations.

"We have strengthened the lineup of signature local specialties and added Porangi merchandise that represents Pohang, giving donors a wider range of gift choices," said Park Jae-gwan, director of Pohang's Autonomous Administration Bureau. "We will continue to discover gift items that capture the unique charm of the region and invigorate the hometown love donation program."