Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Elevates International Grain Advisory Committee to Countermeasures Committee Amid Agflation Concerns

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyun-jung] The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 7th that it will upgrade and operate the previously managed 'International Grain Advisory Committee' as the 'International Grain Contingency Measures Committee' amid rising concerns over recent international grain price increases. The committee chairperson will be Kim Jong-hoon, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The day before, the government held a meeting of the International Grain Advisory Committee and, after comprehensively considering factors such as international price increases and domestic import conditions, judged the current international grain crisis level to be at the 'caution' stage. The government classifies the international grain crisis into four stages: stable, caution, alert, and severe.

Prior to this, the government announced that it would focus on importing agricultural, livestock, and fishery products and early shipment, while implementing emergency tariff quota measures on raw materials and discounted releases of stockpiled goods. To stabilize agricultural and livestock product prices early, an additional 15 million eggs will be imported, early shipment of onions and green onions will be encouraged, and 3,000 tons of stockpiled napa cabbage, which suffered cold wave damage, will be flexibly released.

Additionally, a temporary 0% emergency tariff quota will be applied until the end of the year on some imported grains such as feed corn, and import procedures will be improved to allow onboard sample collection for expedited international grain customs clearance. Discounted releases of non-ferrous metal stockpiles at 1-3% will also be promoted.

The feed corn tariff quota will be reduced from 3% to 0%, covering a total volume of 1.28 million tons until the end of the year. The tariff reduction benefit is expected to reach 12.8 billion KRW.

Furthermore, to alleviate the cost burden on domestic industries due to rising grain prices, financial support will be strengthened by lowering interest rates on raw material purchase funds for the feed, food, and dining-out industries by 0.5 percentage points. The interest rates for feed companies' raw material purchase funds and comprehensive funds for food and dining-out will be reduced from 2.5-3.0% this year to 2.0-2.5%. The loan scale is 50 billion KRW and 144 billion KRW respectively for this year.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, "We will strengthen communication and cooperation with related industries to ensure that these tariff reductions and financial support measures contribute to actual price stabilization, and closely monitor price trends of related products." It added, "We will also consider additional response measures if necessary to minimize the impact of international grain market instability on the domestic market in the future."

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