Assemblyman Yoon Jae-gap: Farmers Bear the Brunt of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing Date Manipulation Damage

Annual 800 Billion KRW Agricultural Machinery Market, Old Machinery Sold as New

Representative Proposes Partial Amendment to the Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Act to Prevent Farmer Damage

Democratic Party of Korea Representative Yoon Jae-gap (Haenam·Wando·Jindo) / ⓒ Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Yoon Jae-gap, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee (Democratic Party, Haenam·Wando·Jindo), announced on the 6th that he had introduced the "Partial Amendment to the Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Act" on the 5th to fundamentally prohibit the manipulation of manufacturing dates on agricultural machinery to prevent damage to farmers.

Under the current law, a format plate displaying basic information of agricultural machinery, including the manufacturing date, must be attached to the main body and engine of 42 types of agricultural machinery such as tractors.

However, since the format plate is made of metal or stickers and can be easily attached and detached, if the existing format plate is removed and a new one is attached, there is no way to know the original manufacturing date of the agricultural machinery.

There are suspicions that some well-known agricultural machinery companies have instructed dealerships to replace the format plates with manipulated manufacturing dates. If proven true, farmers would end up paying more for agricultural machinery with manipulated manufacturing dates than for machinery of the original year.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and its affiliated organizations for the recent five years, the average number of agricultural machinery sold annually is 35,000 units, with sales reaching 800 billion KRW. However, the status of sales volume and sales amount of machinery with manipulated manufacturing dates is difficult to ascertain.

Furthermore, according to data from the Rural Development Administration, violations such as missing format plates or changes in material were detected during post-inspection over the past five years, but there were no cases of detecting manufacturing date manipulation through format plate replacement.

In response, Assemblyman Yoon Jae-gap stated, "There has been no way to detect the sale of agricultural machinery with manipulated manufacturing dates, which has been suspected multiple times, due to institutional loopholes, and all the damage has been borne by farmers." He added, "Through the amendment of the law, agricultural machinery will be legally required to have the manufacturing date engraved on the main body or engine, similar to automobiles, fundamentally prohibiting illegal manipulation of manufacturing dates and preventing damage to farmers."

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