Simmin, Imsil County Governor, Inspects Seasonal Worker Program During Visit to Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Kim In-jung, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, expressed his position to actively consider necessary support so that Imsil County's public seasonal labor project can be expanded nationwide as a successful case.

On the 2nd, Vice Minister Kim visited Imsil County, which is promoting the public seasonal labor project, and during a meeting with Shim Min, Mayor of Imsil County, Shin Won-sik, Director of the Agricultural Life and Livestock Food Bureau of Jeollabuk-do, and officials from the Nonghyup, he said, "I hope Imsil County's public seasonal labor project becomes a representative success case and expands nationwide," carefully reviewing the progress report and suggestions.

On that day, Vice Minister Kim received reports on Imsil County's operation results of the public seasonal labor project last year, the progress this year, and the operation status of the Rural Workforce Brokerage Center, and responded positively to the reduction of farmers' labor and high satisfaction.

Due to the nature of agriculture, there is a high demand for short-term labor concentrated during the busy farming season, and since the public seasonal labor operation method is highly satisfactory and popular among farmers, the county requested an expansion of budget support to continuously promote its expansion.

In response, Vice Minister Kim replied, "I will review as positively as possible the need for continuous expansion of the public seasonal labor project and the request for increased budget support for additional costs incurred."

In particular, regarding the suggestion that the stay period of foreign seasonal workers should be extended from the current 5 months to a maximum of 10 months to realistically solve the labor supply problem during the busy farming season, he expressed strong agreement and said, "It is currently under consultation with the Ministry of Justice and will be finalized soon."

On that day, Vice Minister Kim personally visited farms where public seasonal workers are actually working to encourage the workers and listen to their difficulties.

As a result of operating the public seasonal labor pilot project from May to October last year, 30 Vietnamese workers contributed a total labor effect equivalent to 2,811 workers across 944 farms.

In the first half of this year, a total of 152 people are planned to be deployed and operated through the foreign seasonal labor project, including 31 public seasonal workers, 80 farm placements, and 41 family direct hires. Currently, 110 have completed entry, significantly helping to alleviate labor shortages and labor cost burdens during the busy farming season.

Especially from this year, for systematic support for farmers and foreign workers, 22 seasonal workers from Tuyen Quang Province, Vietnam, who entered under the MOU signed last year, have been deployed for work, and an additional 12 are scheduled to enter and be deployed to work sites within this month.

In addition, the county requested interest and cooperation on the day for ▲expansion of support unit prices and items for strategic crop direct payment system ▲support for large agricultural machinery subsidy projects ▲facility horticulture (chive) to strawberry cultivation crop conversion package ▲rural vulnerable area living condition improvement project contest ▲local food direct sales center (complex cultural center) construction contest project.

Separately, the county additionally requested ▲changing the entire contracted volume of raw milk by Imsil Cheese Nonghyup to ‘processed milk’ and ▲supplying ‘processed milk’ volume to ranch-type dairy processing companies to implement a differential pricing system by raw milk usage and to strengthen the competitiveness of the Imsil cheese industry and stabilize the management of dairy processing companies.

Mayor Shim Min said, “We will establish communication channels between foreign seasonal workers and employing farms and seek multifaceted support measures through field visits and consultations to ensure there are no difficulties in living and working in a foreign country.”

Imsil = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park No-sik baekok@asiae.co.kr

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