Another Online Garak Market Launches... Shipping and Wholesale Costs Down 7.4%

30il Online Wholesale Market Launch Ceremony
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Targets 3.7 Trillion KRW Transactions by 2027

The world's first online wholesale agricultural market has been established. It is a nationwide market where sellers and buyers can freely trade online 24 hours a day without restrictions of time and space.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that the official launch ceremony of the 'Online Agricultural Wholesale Market' was held on the 30th at the Yangjae aT Center.

Minister Jeong Hwang-geun of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in his welcoming remarks, "The online wholesale market, operated for the first time in the world, is an unprecedented path that no one has taken before," and emphasized, "With the goal of creating another Garak Market online, we will grow the online wholesale market to a scale of 3.7 trillion KRW by 2027, reduce distribution costs at the wholesale stage by 700 billion KRW, and ensure that the benefits return to producers and consumers."

The online wholesale market is a nationwide market where various sellers and buyers who meet certain requirements can freely trade 24 hours a day without restrictions of time and space. It has been a key project under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's national agenda. It officially opened 10 months after forming a public-private joint task force in February this year to prepare for the launch.

The first traded item in the online wholesale market is onions. The seller is Jeonnam Southwest Vegetable Agricultural Cooperative, and the buyer is The Born Korea, operated by CEO Baek Jong-won. Through the online wholesale market, The Born Korea's ordered quantity (10 tons) will be selected and directly delivered from Jeonnam Southwest Vegetable Agricultural Cooperative in Muan, Jeonnam to the Eumseong preprocessing center.

In the online wholesale market, after a product transaction is concluded, it is directly delivered from the production site to the buyer, optimizing logistics. Compared to the existing system, the distribution stages are shortened (from 3 stages to 1-2 stages), and distribution costs are expected to be reduced.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs explained, "Producers can secure new shipping destinations while maintaining existing trading partners, expanding their shipping options," and "Buyers can compare and purchase products nationwide on the platform, increasing opportunities to procure agricultural products at reasonable prices."

Analysis of transaction cases (111 cases from October 16 to November 10) during the pilot project period, which was conducted to check and supplement platform functions before the official launch, confirmed that farm gate prices increased by 4.1% compared to offline due to commission fee reductions from direct sales at production sites, and shipping and wholesale stage costs were reduced by 7.4% due to shortened distribution channels and optimized logistics.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will also ensure thorough quality control of traded products for the early stabilization of the online wholesale market. Considering the quality management capabilities for large-volume traded agricultural products, the seller qualification at launch was set as producer organizations or corporations with an annual transaction scale of 5 billion KRW or more. In addition to basic information such as item and quantity, detailed quality information suitable for online transactions, such as sugar content, acidity, color, and size, will be provided. In case of quality-related disputes, a three-stage dispute resolution process will be implemented.

Incentives will also be provided to sellers and buyers. Platform usage fees for sellers (0.3% of transaction amount) will be waived for three years, and special guarantee insurance policies (insurance premium rate capped at 1.85%) and partial premium refunds will be supported for buyers. Logistics-related costs such as logistics company matching fees (10%) and sample delivery fees will also be supported.

Kim Jong-gu, Director of Distribution and Consumption Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "We will support the early stabilization of the online wholesale market by discovering and spreading best practices and providing incentives to participating companies," and added, "By 2027, we will convert 100 Agricultural Product Distribution Centers (APCs) in production areas into smart APCs and complete the digital innovation of agricultural product distribution, including the disclosure of digitalized agricultural product distribution information to support private sector distribution innovation and new industry creation."

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