Gyeongbuk Province to Purchase 72,500 Tons of Public Stockpiled Rice This Year... 15% of National Volume

20,000 Tons of Sanmul Rice to be Purchased from October to Mid-November, 52,500 Tons of Bagged Rice from November to End of February

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Dong-wook] Gyeongsangbuk-do announced on the 14th that it will purchase 72,500 tons of public stockpiled rice (20,000 tons of paddy rice, 52,500 tons of bagged rice) from early October to the end of December this year. This is the third largest amount of public stockpiled rice nationwide (15% of the national total), following Jeonnam and Jeonbuk.

Paddy rice will be purchased in the harvested wet rice state through the Rice Processing Complex (RPC) from early October to mid-November, and bagged rice will be purchased in a dried state with moisture content between 13.0% and 15.0% at designated purchase locations by city and county from early November to the end of December, in units of 40 kg or 800 kg.

The public stockpiling system is a system introduced in 2005 under Article 10 of the Grain Management Act, whereby the government stocks a certain amount of food to prepare for emergencies such as supply instability due to grain (food) shortages and natural disasters.

The purchase price of public stockpiled rice is determined based on the nationwide average farmgate rice price during the harvest season (October to December) surveyed by Statistics Korea. The interim payment is 30,000 won per 40 kg bag, paid immediately after purchase, the same as last year. The final settlement is paid by the end of December. In 2019, prices were 67,920 won for special grade, 65,750 won for first grade, and 62,830 won for second grade.

Of the total 72,500 tons, 43,700 tons of general dried rice, 800 tons of eco-friendly dried rice, and 20,000 tons of paddy rice will be purchased separately. An incentive quantity of 8,000 tons for farmers participating in the paddy field crop diversification project will be directly allocated and purchased by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Additionally, to improve the quality of government grain by preventing the mixing of varieties other than the designated varieties (1-2 per city/county), 5% of samples will be collected for variety inspection tests implemented since 2018. If a farm is found to have more than 20% mixing of other varieties in the collected samples, it will be excluded from the public stockpiled rice purchase target for the next five years to prevent recurrence.

Kim Jong-su, Director of the Agriculture, Livestock and Distribution Bureau, stated, "We plan to purchase public stockpiled rice without any issues and cooperate with related organizations such as city/county offices, the Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, and NongHyup to ensure safety and convenience for farmers at shipping sites amid COVID-19, thoroughly managing purchase locations, allocation of purchase quantities per farm, and farmer publicity."

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