Hwacheon-gun Military Supply Farms Urge Maintaining '100% Private Contract'

Ministry of National Defense Grants 3-Year Grace Period with 70% Reduction (100% Cut for Weapons and Baechu)
Military Supply Farms Request Withdrawal of Competitive Procurement System and Direct Delivery

Hwacheon County Military Supply Emergency Measures Committee is urging the normalization of the private contract for military supply agricultural products. [Hwacheon County]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] Agricultural producers supplying military provisions in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do, have urged the Ministry of National Defense to maintain '100% direct contracts.'

The Hwacheon-gun Military Supply Emergency Committee stated on the 25th, "'The 3-year grace period for 70% military supply direct contracts' was agreed upon between the Ministry of National Defense and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, completely excluding the opinions of farmers in the border areas. This is an act of mocking the border area farmers once again," asserting this position.

Earlier, during the Ministry of National Defense's audit on the 4th, it announced its stance to postpone the application of 70% direct contract volume for military supplies in border areas at the same level as this year until 2024 (with 100% cuts for radishes and cabbages) for three years.

In response, the Military Supply Emergency Committee criticized it as a 'short-term patchwork policy.'

The committee argued, "It only alleviates temporary pain for the moment and is not a policy that truly helps agriculture and farmers from a long-term perspective. Ultimately, it is a foolish policy like Josam-mosa (朝三暮四), focusing only on immediate benefits."

They continued, "We strongly request the Ministry of National Defense to properly implement policies to strengthen food sovereignty by ensuring the safety and stability of military personnel meals, improving meal quality, and protecting agriculture and farmers through planned production, which is a reliable supply chain of domestic agricultural products."

Furthermore, they called for the withdrawal of plans to apply a competitive procurement system to agricultural products directly produced by farmers in border areas, the maintenance of 100% direct contracts, and direct delivery centered on local governments.

The committee stated that if their requests are not accepted, they plan to continue taking practical actions to normalize military meals.

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