Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Extends Livestock Farmers' Feed Purchase Loan Repayment Period to 'Up to 5 Years'

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seonhee] The government has decided to extend the repayment period for feed purchase funds from the existing 2-year grace period with lump-sum repayment to a '3-year grace period with 2-year installment repayment' to ease the burden on domestic livestock farms. This allows loan repayments to be made over a maximum of 5 years.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 8th the "Measures to Ease the Cost Burden on Livestock Farms." This is a follow-up measure after the government expanded the scale of loan support for feed purchase funds (from 355 billion KRW to 1.5 trillion KRW) and lowered the interest rate (from 1.8% per annum to 1.0%) through the second supplementary budget.

Along with this, the import quota for forage in the second half of this year was increased by 300,000 tons. It is expected that a total of 1.1 million tons of imported forage quota will be operated this year.

Additionally, about 14.7 billion KRW will be invested from this month until the Chuseok peak season to support slaughter fees, thereby reducing the shipment cost burden for Hanwoo and pig farming households. From mid-July, a slaughter fee of 20,000 KRW per pig will be supported for pigs listed in wholesale markets. As a result, the pig shipment cost burden is expected to decrease from the existing 34,000 KRW to 14,000 KRW.

For all Hanwoo cows and pigs slaughtered during the peak season from three weeks before Chuseok until the day before, additional slaughter fees will be supported (100,000 KRW per Hanwoo cow, 10,000 KRW per pig).

This measure is interpreted as an effort to appease livestock farmers following the government's additional application of zero percent tariff quotas on seven items including beef and chicken, after imported pork.

Park Beom-su, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Supporting livestock farms suffering from price increases as well as reducing consumer burdens is an important task for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the main agricultural policy department. We plan to closely cooperate with related agencies and industries to ensure that policies to ease the production and shipment cost burdens of livestock farms established through these measures are smoothly implemented in the field."

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