It’s said that to really understand someone, you must walk a mile in their shoes. Citrus Medal CEO Jae-hyun Yang takes this aphorism to heart—sometimes to the point of literally eschewing his farming boots for regular shoes to pull himself out of the farmer’s mindset and into that of his customers. 

“Wearing shoes like a farmer helps with farming, but it keeps making you think from a farmer’s perspective,” Jae-hyun said with a laugh. This drive to truly think like his customers has transformed Jae-hyun’s tangerine business in Jeju, which includes a farm that has been run by his family for three generations.



Before taking over the operations of his family farm, Jae-hyun worked as a merchandiser, focusing on product planning. However, he was suddenly thrust into the family business when he heard news that his father had collapsed one day. “I didn’t know much about farm management or the regular sales channels,” said Jae-hyun. Instead, he decided to focus on what he did know. “As a customer, I used Coupang Marketplace a lot, so I naturally turned to Coupang as a sales channel.”

In this process, he found Coupang’s seller onboarding system to be of huge help. “Joining Coupang as a seller was as easy as making payments as a customer,” said Jae-hyun. “The barriers to entry were low, so I could focus on growing sales from the get-go rather than having to invest significant effort into just getting started.”

Photo courtesy of Citrus Medal

Using his past experience, Jae-hyun decided to brand his tangerines, creating “Citrus Medal.” He procured the best fruits from his father’s farm as well as from other farmers to sell online directly to customers. If potential customers balked at the price, he would offer them free tastings with confidence that his products were worth it. He also paid careful attention to his product descriptions, weaving in responses to common questions such as how to store fruits and the difference between tangerines sold at marts and those sold directly on Coupang. “As a result, we got a lot of new customers who were buying fruit online for the first time, as well young customers,” said Jae-hyun.

Based on customer reviews, for example, Jae-hyun decided to offer 1 kg packs along with their existing 5 kg packs and 10 kg packs. Customer opinions were even reflected when harvesting the tangerines themselves. Because Korean consumers prefer sweeter tangerines, Citrus Medal’s tangerines tend to be harvested late. While this creates higher sugar content in the produce, it places greater strain on the trees, requiring longer recovery times and reducing total yield.

“To make money, it’s better to harvest the fruits quickly and sell them quickly, but we harvest them late,” said Jae-hyun. “While picking late isn’t great for the trees, you can’t look at it with a farmer’s mindset. You have to see it from the customers’ perspective.”

Photo courtesy of Citrus Medal

Citrus Medal’s efforts on Coupang have yielded incredible results. Within just one year of launching on Coupang, Citrus Medal increased its monthly sales by a factor of 30. This success has been a boon for other local tangerine farmers as well, as Citrus Medal’s sales network allows them to sell at higher prices and earn more profits than if they had to depend on traditional wholesalers as in the past. 

“Since my son sells on Coupang, I can make more profits, and the creation of a new sales network serves as a stable base of production,” said Jae-hyun’s father, one of source farmers in Citrus Medal’s network.

 Jae-hyun plans to continue growing Citrus Medal by helping more farmhouses connect online in this manner. “My dream is to create a brand that competes with just one fruit, like the U.S. Sunkist oranges or New Zealand Zespri kiwis.”