Table 2. Classification of the patents issued from 1998 to 2019 for post-harvest management technology for fresh agricultural products according to eight subcategories, for four countries (Korea, USA, Japan and China) and the European Union

Year1)	Countries2)					Post-harvest management technologies
	Korea	USA	Japan	China	EU	P1	P2	P3	P4	S1	S2	S3	S4
1998	13	10	19	0	9	2	9	2	11	4	5	2	16
1999	10	7	51	2	6	7	18	1	22	3	7	7	11
2000	18	5	31	3	2	10	12	5	14	0	5	3	10
2001	17	11	39	0	4	4	14	2	16	3	12	7	13
2002	11	8	36	3	7	2	8	5	18	4	6	5	17
2003	13	14	29	3	6	2	10	9	24	3	5	4	8
2004	18	13	25	3	6	5	8	10	15	0	7	5	15
2005	15	9	25	6	6	2	6	11	14	4	6	6	12
2006	7	4	27	2	5	1	11	3	14	4	2	4	6
2007	12	6	25	9	5	1	8	7	11	1	12	5	12
2008	19	2	19	9	4	3	15	4	8	1	4	6	12
2009	24	5	15	14	0	1	7	7	12	1	13	7	10
2010	17	4	14	10	1	1	8	1	10	3	7	7	9
2011	25	5	12	12	7	0	9	8	15	3	8	10	8
2012	16	3	24	22	7	1	17	8	14	3	10	9	10
2013	19	6	22	41	5	4	18	6	12	2	22	14	15
2014	28	10	25	34	3	1	17	0	11	4	21	22	24
2015	34	6	20	56	5	2	19	5	21	2	29	14	29
2016	22	11	22	71	1	6	18	9	14	8	30	15	27
2017	30	3	45	92	1	6	25	22	17	8	33	25	35
Total	368	142	525	392	90	61	257	125	293	61	244	177	299

Year from 1998 to 2017 (p<0.01).
Five countries (p<0.01).