Rice Price Plunge... Party and Government to Implement Additional 126,000 Tons Quarantine Measures

Kim Hyun-soo, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (third from the left), is delivering opening remarks at the rice market isolation party-government meeting held at the National Assembly on the 27th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee (Sejong), Reporter Park Jun-i] The government has decided to purchase an additional 126,000 tons out of the 270,000 tons of oversupplied rice that occurred last year to prevent rice prices from falling. This follows the first purchase of 144,000 tons and involves additional isolation measures for the remaining quantity.

The Democratic Party and related ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, held a party-government consultation at the National Assembly on the morning of the 27th and announced this plan. Kim Seong-hwan, the Democratic Party Policy Committee Chair, said, "Rice prices at production sites have fallen significantly due to market oversupply," and added, "We decided to purchase the remaining amount that was not bought from the initially targeted 270,000 tons." In this regard, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to announce detailed purchase plans next month.

Rice market isolation is an act where the government directly intervenes in prices by managing the oversupplied quantity. Because of this, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which is sensitive to price management, voiced opposition, leading to differing opinions within the government. During the first isolation in February, a reverse auction method was used for the lowest bid, which caused backlash from farmers. Regarding this, the party and government agreed that the second purchase would proceed in the same manner as the first but that prices should not fall below the scheduled price (estimated price). Kim, the Policy Committee Chair, said, "Since this is a transitional period of regime change, policy decisions were not easy," and added, "The Moon Jae-in administration decided to make additional purchases until the end, considering the difficult circumstances of farmers."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, "To ensure appropriate production of 2022 rice, we are promoting a plan to reduce rice cultivation areas in cooperation with local governments," and added, "We plan to provide benefits such as additional allocation of public stock rice according to the reduction performance of each local government."

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