Garak Market to Implement Corn Pallet Unit Auctions Starting July

Starting July 1, Pallet Unit Auctions Begin; Non-Pallet Transactions Prohibited from August 28... Modernized Vegetable 2-dong Designed for Corn Transactions Only via Pallet Trading

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Seoul Agro-Fisheries & Food Corporation (President Moon Young-pyo) announced that corn traded at Garak Market will be auctioned in pallet units starting July 1, and non-pallet shipments of corn will be prohibited from August 28.

From July 1, shippers should sort corn that can be palletized as much as possible and ship it in pallet units, but quantities that are difficult to ship in pallet units can be shipped as before.

However, from August 28, non-palletized quantities will be prohibited from trading, and shipments must be made only in pallet units.

The corporation is currently carrying out the Garak Market facility modernization project, and corn is one of the 11 items to be housed in Vegetable Building 2, which will be completed in the second half of next year.

Vegetable Building 2 will have a temperature-controlled facility (26°C in summer) allowing transactions only by pallet, so it is essential to establish pallet unit trading of corn this year.

Corn, mainly traded in the summer season, is currently using the outdoor parking lot as a temporary auction site, where unloading workers manually unload and deliver the incoming quantities one by one.

During this process, issues such as heatstroke risks for unloading workers, excessive unloading costs, and traffic congestion caused by vehicle waiting times (2 hours) during loading and unloading have arisen.

On the other hand, pallet trading enables loading and unloading using forklifts, which is expected to resolve these safety and logistics issues at once.

In particular, pallet trading significantly reduces unloading costs because forklifts handle loading and unloading. When unloading 80 bags of corn manually, unloading costs amount to 149 KRW per bag, totaling 11,920 KRW, but forklift unloading costs are only 6,000 to 7,000 KRW, achieving more than 40% cost savings. Also, pallet unloading costs are fixed regardless of the number of bags, so the higher the loading efficiency, the greater the cost-saving effect.

To facilitate smooth establishment of pallet trading, the corporation will provide shippers with a subsidy of 5,000 KRW per pallet for two years (3,000 KRW from the corporation and 2,000 KRW from the wholesale market corporation). Considering the difficulty of palletizing corn due to bag packaging and its heat sensitivity, the corporation also plans to support research and development of various containers that can improve pallet loading efficiency.

Typically, when promoting palletization, 3,000 KRW per bag was supported to shippers, but considering the difficulties of palletizing corn and the short period until the second half of next year when the new facility will be occupied, the subsidy has been increased to 5,000 KRW for two years.

Especially, because corn is bag-packaged and heat-sensitive, making high stacking on pallets difficult, loading containers that facilitate high stacking and dissipate heat are necessary.

The corporation is currently working with shippers, distributors, and pallet manufacturers to develop such containers.

Kang Sung-su, Logistics Improvement Team Leader, stated, “Although working conditions at production sites are difficult due to rising labor and raw material costs, considering the urgency of not delaying corn pallet trading any further, we ask for active cooperation from shippers.”

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