Purchase of 350,000 Tons of Rice for Public Stockpiling and Overseas Aid to Ensure Food Security

Purchase from September 16 to December 31... Pod rice from October 11

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government announced on the 15th that it plans to purchase 350,000 tons of rice, including 340,000 tons of public stockpiled rice from the 2021 harvest and 10,000 tons of rice for overseas aid, from the 16th until December 31. Public stockpiled rice functions to stabilize prices by supplying the market in emergencies.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated that it will purchase 240,000 tons of bagged rice and 100,000 tons of unprocessed rice as public stockpiled rice. Unprocessed rice, which refers to rice that has not been dried after harvest, will be purchased starting from the 16th, while bagged rice, meaning rice that has been dried and packaged after harvest, will be purchased starting from the 11th of next month. The purchase price will be determined based on the average price of rice at production sites surveyed nine times at 10-day intervals by the Statistics Korea from the 5th of next month until December 25. Immediately after purchase, farmers will be paid an interim settlement amount of 30,000 KRW per 40kg bag of paddy rice. The difference will be paid by the end of the year after the purchase price is finalized. Last year, the purchase price for first-grade 40kg paddy rice was 75,140 KRW.

Separately from the public stockpile, the government will also purchase 10,000 tons of rice to operate the 'ASEAN+3 Emergency Rice Reserve System.' The 10 ASEAN countries and the three countries of Korea, China, and Japan had previously signed an international agreement to pre-commit and stockpile rice reserves for emergency aid. Of the rice purchased for the public stockpile, 10,000 tons will be stored and managed separately.

To improve the quality of government grain, the government decided to designate up to two rice varieties per city or county as eligible for purchase. Farmers who bring rice varieties other than the contracted varieties to participate in the public stockpile purchase will be excluded from the public stockpile purchase target farms for five years. Local governments will collect samples from shipping farms, and after the purchase ends, a private inspection agency designated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will conduct variety verification (DNA testing). Samples will be collected from 5% of all farms targeted for purchase.

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