Gyeongnam Province to Purchase 74,474 Tons of Publicly Stockpiled Rice This Year... All Powdered Rice Included

Sanmul Rice Expanded by 30%, Record High 26,070 Tons

Gyeongsangnam-do will begin full-scale purchase of 74,474 tons of 2023 public stockpiled rice.

According to Gyeongnam Province on the 11th, the purchase period for un-dried paddy rice after harvest is from the 7th of this month to November 30, and for dried rice, it is from October 10 to December 31.

Gyeongnam Province explained that the rice cultivation area decreased by about 19,000 hectares nationwide due to the strategic crop direct payment system and non-rice crop cultivation in paddy fields promoted this year to stabilize rice supply and demand.

Benefits for farmers participating in the reduction of rice cultivation area will be expanded, and a separate purchase volume of 10,500 tons will be directly allocated to local farmers in the province.

For the first time, 817 tons of powdered rice (Baromi2 variety) produced in the specialized powdered rice production complex will be entirely purchased as public stockpiled rice and sequentially supplied from next year to food factories utilizing powdered rice as a substitute for flour.

To reduce labor for farmers and facilitate shipment, the purchase of un-dried paddy rice will also be expanded up to 26,070 tons, which is 30% of the total volume, marking the largest amount ever. This is an 11% increase from 21,725 tons last year.

Sacks filled with public reserve rice are stacked.
[Photo by Gyeongnam Provincial Government]

For public stockpiled rice, an interim payment of 30,000 KRW per 40kg bag of brown rice will be paid immediately after shipment, and the remaining balance will be finalized and paid in a lump sum at the end of December based on the rice prices announced by the Statistics Korea during the harvest season from October to December.

According to the government’s 2023 plan to purchase 555,000 tons of public stockpiled rice, Gyeongsangnam-do has been allocated 74,474 tons, which has been confirmed and notified to each city and county, and the purchase has begun.

Since the varieties of rice eligible for public stockpiled purchase are designated up to two per city or county, farmers must pay special attention to avoid being excluded from the purchase list for five years due to issues pointed out in variety inspection genetic tests.

Seo Yang-gwon, Director of Eco-friendly Agriculture, said, “We hope each farm will actively cooperate with the first-time purchase of powdered rice and the expanded direct allocation purchase volume for farmers this year,” adding, “We will promptly purchase public stockpiled rice and do our best to manage government grain supply and demand.”

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