Jeonbuk Province Supports Production Costs for Contract Farming Households in School Meals, First Nationwide

Jeonbuk Provincial Government Office

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Tae-in] The Jeonbuk Province announced on the 11th that over the past two months, eco-friendly agricultural products contracted for school meals have lost their delivery destinations, resulting in cases of self-disposal or abandonment of harvests. To compensate for this, Jeonbuk Province has allocated 2.2 billion KRW in the second supplementary budget, the first of its kind nationwide.

Jeonbuk Province plans to make payments within this month by quickly calculating production costs, setting the support target farms based on the delivery volume (560 tons) from March to April last year, and verifying the actual delivered items and quantities.

Additionally, the province intends to provide cash support covering part of the production costs (51.5%) to about 360 farms contracted with the School Meal Support Center and those contracted under the Seoul City Urban-Rural Win-Win Program for eco-friendly agricultural products used in school meals within the province.

However, the payment excludes eco-friendly agricultural products that were consumed through special sales promotions in March and April.

Jeonbuk Province will also provide partial operating expenses to the School Meal Support Centers, which have faced operational difficulties due to lack of work over the past two months, along with the contracted farms.

The province will support partial operating costs for 14 city and county School Meal Support Centers that faced existential crises due to the complete suspension of school meal deliveries caused by COVID-19.

Jeonbuk’s School Meal Support Centers are established in each city and county and have been responsible since 2014 for contracting with farms to produce agricultural products needed for school meals and supplying them to schools. Currently, 392 people are employed at designated agricultural corporations through agreements with the respective cities and counties.

Kang Haewon, Director of the Agricultural Food Industry Division of Jeonbuk Province, said, “By providing cash compensation for part of the production costs for damaged crops to farms contracted for school meal production, we aim to raise awareness of the importance of contract farming. We also expect the planned production system between the School Meal Support Centers and farms to become more solid.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.