Gimhae City Completes Full Purchase of 3,339 Tons of 2023 Public Reserve Rice

2024 Purchase Variety Changes, Caution Advised

Gimhae City in Gyeongnam announced on the 24th that it has completed the purchase of 3,339 tons of 2023 public stockpiled rice.

The city explained that starting with unthreshed rice called sanmul-byeo on October 14, it purchased dried rice 18 times at designated locations in eup, myeon, and dong areas, and has bought the entire allocated purchase quantity as of this day.

According to the city, the purchased varieties were high-quality rice Yeonghojinmi and hyeonpum-byeo, with over 97% of the total purchase volume receiving a first-grade rating.

The city analyzed that despite difficult conditions such as rising agricultural material costs and labor shortages, farmers in Gimhae produced high-quality rice.

Hong Tae-yong, Mayor of Gimhae, Gyeongnam (center), is inspecting the purchase status of the 2023 public stockpiled rice.
[Photo by Gimhae City Hall]

The rice purchase price is determined by reflecting the nationwide average farmgate rice price during the harvest season from October to December.

An initial payment of 30,000 KRW per 40kg was made immediately after purchase, and an additional payment (difference) will be settled and paid at the end of December based on the results of the farmgate rice price survey.

Mayor Hong Taeyong visited the 2023 public stockpiled rice purchase site at the Gimhae Rice Processing Complex (RPC) on the 23rd to encourage the shipping farmers and related personnel.

Mayor Hong said, “I express my gratitude to the farmers who worked hard to improve the quality of public stockpiled rice and to all related institutions such as the Agricultural Products Quality Management Service and NongHyup who cooperated for smooth purchasing.”

Starting next year, Gimhae City has designated Yeonghojinmi and Yeongjin as the purchase varieties for the 2024 public stockpiled rice instead of hyeonpum-byeo, which will no longer be supplied by the government.

A city official said, “According to the operation of the variety inspection system, farmers who mix more than 20% of other varieties will be excluded from the public stockpiled rice purchase for the next five years. Since the purchase varieties will change from next year, we hope farmers remember and take caution.”

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