Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Cuts Regulations to Overcome COVID-19

[Co-planned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs] Achievements in Regulatory Reform Amid Infectious Disease Response
Opening Online Transactions in Agricultural Wholesale Markets
Starting Support for School Meal Agricultural Produce Packages
Supporting Safe Restaurants to Improve Food Culture

Park Jeong-il, Deputy General Manager of NongHyup Economic Holdings, is lifting an onion that has been tradable through the online agricultural products trading system since May 27. This system is regarded as an innovative case rapidly implemented through regulatory improvements by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and NongHyup Economic Holdings.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is accelerating the development of new industries and regulatory improvements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Representative initiatives include not only boosting economic vitality through structural changes such as allowing online transactions in agricultural wholesale markets but also life-oriented projects with high public impact, such as supporting school meal agricultural product packages and improving dining culture.

◆Non-face-to-face B2B transactions of agricultural products= The wholesale market is the sector most widely and deeply affected by COVID-19 in the agriculture and livestock industry. As the need for non-face-to-face distribution surged due to some closures, the government improved the existing electronic transaction method in agricultural wholesale markets, which only allowed fixed-price and private sales, by expanding the permitted scope to include auctions and bidding.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs improved the electronic transaction operation guidelines for wholesale markets in April, initially applying them to onion transactions, then expanded the pilot project to garlic in August, and apple transactions are scheduled to begin this month. As a result, a system enabling online auctions was established for the first time in 35 years since the public wholesale market opened in 1985. This is evaluated as achieving two goals: responding to the risk of infectious diseases in collective facilities like wholesale markets and improving the efficiency of agricultural product distribution. Since the pilot project started on May 27, about 10,000 tons (approximately 8.5 billion KRW) of agricultural products have been traded online as of September 18.

Park Jeong-il, Deputy Head of the Auction Support Team at NongHyup Economic Holdings, which built the Online Agricultural Products Exchange, said, "We are conducting pilot projects for online agricultural product trading targeting onions in May, garlic in August, and apples in November, and plan to gradually expand the range of items."

◆Supplying agricultural products for meals to 5.5 million students nationwide= With school openings delayed due to COVID-19, agricultural producers who had contracts to supply products for school meals faced a crisis. To open blocked sales channels, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs resolved legal and institutional obstacles such as the School Meals Act and contract law and promoted the supply of 'student household agricultural product packages' nationwide.

Regarding whether the package project could be conducted using meal expenses under the School Meals Act, the ministry requested pre-consultation from the Board of Audit and Inspection’s proactive administration team and examined a legal interpretation that budget execution for package projects under central administrative agency plans is not considered a donation act. Subsequently, they requested the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to temporarily expand the scope of private contracts, establishing a legal basis. As a result, sales channels for about 37,000 tons (approximately 375 billion KRW) of agricultural products were secured, alleviating the crisis for farmers and small suppliers. Kim Byunghyuk, Policy Committee Member of the Korea Organic Farmers Association, said, "When school deliveries were blocked, there was even concern about rice being dumped, and organic rice producers almost suffered great damage, but thanks to the package project, they were able to avoid it."

◆Spreading the 'Safe Restaurant' culture to change Korean-style dining culture= Korean dining culture, where food is shared and multiple people use the same utensils, was also identified as a target for 'innovation' amid the COVID-19 crisis. Accordingly, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs established improvement plans focusing on three major tasks: serving food individually, hygienic management of spoons and chopsticks, and staff wearing masks.

To implement these tasks, local governments designated 'Safe Restaurants' and encouraged both staff and consumers to participate in the campaign. To promote participation, Safe Restaurant supplies (1.7 billion KRW, funded equally by national and local governments) were provided, and information on participating restaurants was shared. Various methods were presented, including discovering excellent models for dining culture improvement, producing guidelines, and soliciting ideas to develop customized utensils.

A ministry official said, "Through the continuous campaign, we were able to induce behavioral changes and improve overall dining culture, and the nationwide spread of Safe Restaurants helped build trust between consumers and food service workers. We expect this to foster a safe and dignified dining culture based on safety, not only overcoming the COVID-19 crisis."

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