NongHyup to Purchase Entire Desired Rice Shipment Volume from Farmers

Harvest Demonstration and Meeting Held in Damyang-gun, Jeonnam 5 Days Ago
Emergency Support of 2.1 Trillion Won in Purchase Funds

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyun-jung] The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) has decided to purchase all the rice quantities that farmers wish to ship from the 2020 harvest to help farmers struggling due to the prolonged rainy season and typhoons during the harvest period.

On the 5th, Lee Sung-hee, chairman of NACF, visited the rice harvest site in Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do, during the harvest season. Along with Lee Gae-ho, chairman of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee, and local agricultural officials, he listened to the opinions of farmers on site and announced rice harvest countermeasures reflecting these views.

The related measures include purchasing all the rice quantities that farmers wish to ship during the harvest period, as well as ▲supporting 2.1 trillion KRW in rice purchase funds ▲expanding the purchase of unhulled rice for elderly farmers ▲improving storage and preservation capacity of local agricultural cooperatives ▲and government special purchase of all typhoon-damaged rice.

NACF plans to purchase all the rice quantities that farmers wish to ship from the 2020 harvest to resolve farmers' sales difficulties. The planned purchase volume is about 1.65 million tons, the same as last year's NACF purchase volume, which accounts for 44.8% of this year's expected rice production of approximately 3.68 million tons.

To share the difficulties of farmers and ease the financial burden on regional agricultural cooperatives, the purchase funds for 2020 rice will be supported at 2.1 trillion KRW, an increase of 200 billion KRW from last year's 1.9 trillion KRW. The self-funded portion of rice purchase funds by regional agricultural cooperatives will be reduced from the previous 700 billion KRW to about 500 billion KRW this year.

To reduce the drying labor for aging production farms, the purchase of unhulled rice, which was about 87% of the total purchase volume last year, will be expanded to over 90%. Additionally, to improve the storage and preservation capacity of local agricultural cooperatives, on-site technical support will be strengthened to complete 16 drying and storage facilities ahead of schedule. Typhoon-affected damaged rice will be fully purchased by the government through NACF to prevent the distribution of low-quality rice in the market.

Lee Sung-hee, chairman of NACF, stated, "This year, our farmers have faced many difficulties due to an unprecedented prolonged rainy season and consecutive typhoon damages during the harvest period. We will do our best to implement measures to stabilize rice prices and increase agricultural income so that smiles can return to the faces of our hardworking farmers."

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