JEJU — The appeal of the yogurt and cheese made at Achim Miso Farm on Jeju Island lies in an unusual approach to raising livestock. Rather than expanding the herd to boost output, the farm lets its cows roam freely across wide pastures and feeds them grass grown on site. The operation has long held to the principle that cows raised in a good environment produce better-tasting milk.
Lee Sung-chul, who runs Achim Miso Farm, said in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily on the 21st at the farm in Wolpyeong-dong, Jeju City, that "everything started from the idea that the cows have to be happy." Lee added that "milk from cows that eat good grass and move around freely tastes different from the start." The interview took place during a corporate site visit organized as part of the 2026 Leaders Forum for small and medium-sized enterprises, held on Jeju.
Founded in 1975 by Lee's father, Achim Miso Farm is now in its third generation. Lee took over from his father, and his son, who had worked as a police officer, has since returned to farming and joined the management. The family considered shutting down during the Asian financial crisis but found a way forward by turning the site into a working farm open to visitors. It later grew into a business combining dairy processing, retail sales and tourism.
Achim Miso Farm raises 90 to 100 cows, including calves, on roughly 66 acres of pasture. It is the only farm in the country raising dairy cattle entirely on free range, and it holds government animal welfare certification. The farm also sticks to a rule of keeping only as many cows as it can feed with grass it grows itself, declining to scale up the herd aggressively. "Cows raised on grass produce less milk than those fed large amounts of feed, but there is a difference in taste and nutrition," Lee said. "People who drink our milk even ask whether we added sugar."
That approach costs more than conventional dairy farming, because it requires securing large pastures and limits the number of cows that can be kept. "Free-range grazing may be inefficient in economic terms, but we hold to the principle of raising our cows on grass we produce ourselves," Lee said.
The farm has invested as much in product development as in securing high-quality raw milk, the milk drawn from cows before pasteurization or processing. Its flagship yogurt took five years to develop. Over that period, the farm repeated production trials thousands of times to improve taste and quality, and handed out samples of the yogurt under development free of charge at local events on Jeju to gauge consumer reaction.
Rigorous sanitation management is another of the farm's strengths. Achim Miso Farm reached a turning point in the early 2010s when it began supplying Sangmidang Holdings, formerly SPC Group. Before deliveries began, the farm underwent about 11 months of sanitation training, allowing it to overhaul its hygiene systems. Monthly revenue, then around 3 million won, jumped to about 100 million won after the deal began. The farm later drew interest from Hyundai Department Store (069960) and won a contract to supply yogurt, widening its sales channels.
More recently, the farm has moved aggressively into processed foods built on its existing dairy lineup, including yogurt and cheese. It produces several types of snacks using milk jam and has developed cosmetics using yogurt as an ingredient. The strategy is to raise value by using existing products as raw materials for new ones.
The farm has also put effort into employee benefits and stable job creation. It currently employs about 28 people and works with Jeju Special Self-Governing Province's youth employment support programs to help young workers find jobs and settle in the region. In particular, the farm is planning a franchise business so that long-serving employees can earn stable income after retirement. Unlike typical franchise recruitment, the plan is to offer startup opportunities to existing employees first. "I want to create a path where employees can keep growing with us even after they retire," Lee said.
Achim Miso Farm has grown into a tourist destination drawing more than 350,000 visitors a year and now exports products to markets including Japan and Hong Kong. "Rather than immediate profit, I prepare each morning with an eye on a farm that can still be running 100 years from now," Lee said.