Muan-gun Implements Market Isolation for Early Harvest Onions at 7,000t Scale

Onion harvesting is taking place at a farm in Muan-gun. (Photo by Muan-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Oh Hwan-joo] Muan County, Jeollanam-do (Governor Kim San) announced on the 4th that it will isolate 7,000 tons of early-season onions from the market to prevent losses to farmers caused by the sharp drop in onion prices.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held an emergency meeting on the 26th of last month with Jeollanam-do, Muan County, the Nonghyup, and the Mandatory Fund Association, deciding to isolate 7,000 tons of onions from the market and allocate 525 million KRW as support funds for onion purchase, storage, and management costs.

This isolation measure involves delaying the shipment of early-season onions until after the shipment period of mid-late season onions, as the shipment volume of early-season onions increased in early May, but the cultivation area of mid-late season onions, which are shipped after mid-June, is expected to decrease, leading to a reduction in production.

Purchasing will be conducted from the 6th to the 25th of this month, and the purchased onions will be shipped 50 days after the purchase date.

The county will compensate the purchasing Nonghyup and farmers with 75,000 KRW per ton for storage and management costs and plans to operate purchasing and shipment flexibly according to wholesale price supply and demand conditions.

Governor Kim San said, “We will establish a close cooperation system with related organizations to stabilize onion prices so that onion farmers can focus on farming without worrying about the decline in agricultural product prices.”

Meanwhile, to secure the income of onion farmers in Cheonggye-myeon, the main production area of early-season onions, Cheonggye Nonghyup is also starting an emergency purchase of 2,000 tons of onions on its own from the 23rd, continuing efforts by related organizations to stabilize onion prices.

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