Jeonnam Province Provides Low-Interest Loans to Food Hygiene Businesses Amid Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic

Fixed Annual Interest Rate of 1%... Up to 400 Million KRW for Facility Improvements, etc.

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 22nd that it will provide loans at an annual interest rate of 1% to reduce the economic burden on food hygiene businesses struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to create a clean dining environment.

The food hygiene business loan support project is funded by the Food Promotion Fund and provides low-interest loans from Jeonnam Province for facility improvements and operating funds for food hygiene businesses.

The loan targets include food service establishments such as restaurants and bakeries, food manufacturing and processing businesses, and health functional food manufacturing and sales businesses, with a total of 49,551 locations in Jeonnam.

The loan interest rate is a fixed 1% per year, and the loan ratio can cover up to 80% of the required funds.

The loan limits for facility improvements are as follows: ▲ Food Safety Management Certification (HACCP) businesses and businesses wishing to obtain certification up to 400 million KRW ▲ Food manufacturing and processing businesses up to 100 million KRW ▲ Food service establishments up to 50 million KRW (10 million KRW for restrooms) ▲ Businesses wishing to be designated as excellent sellers of children's preferred foods up to 30 million KRW. Operating funds can be loaned up to 10 million KRW.

Business owners wishing to apply for loans can check loan eligibility at branches of Gwangju Bank or the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and then submit application documents to the city or county hygiene department.

For more details, refer to the announcements on the Jeonnam Province website under provincial news or contact the city or county hygiene department.

Kim Byungseong, Director of the Food and Drug Division of Jeonnam Province, said, “To support food hygiene businesses weakened by COVID-19, we lowered the loan interest rate from 2% to 1% starting last year and secured an additional 1 billion KRW in project funds through the supplementary budget in July this year. We hope many food hygiene business owners will take interest and make use of this program.”

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