"Continued Efforts to Stabilize Agricultural Product Prices After Seol... Focused Discounts on Apples and Pears, Support for Facility Vegetable Shipping Costs"

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Holds 'Expanded Meeting on Agricultural Food Supply and Demand Situation'
Daily Monitoring of Supply and Demand, Expansion of Domestic and International Supply

The government plans to stabilize the soaring fruit prices after the Lunar New Year by expanding domestic and international supply and continuing discount support focused on apples and pears. It will also support wholesale market shipping costs for facility-grown vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers.

On the 19th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held an 'Expanded Agricultural and Food Supply and Demand Situation Review Meeting' at the Government Complex Sejong, chaired by Vice Minister Han Hoon, to discuss these measures. This meeting was organized to review the supply and demand trends of agricultural and livestock products and the price situation of processed foods and dining out after the Lunar New Year, and to listen to field opinions from distribution sectors such as wholesale markets and large supermarkets to seek proactive measures for price stabilization.

To ease the burden on shopping baskets during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Ministry expanded the supply of the top 10 Lunar New Year seasonal products to the largest scale ever and invested a budget of 69 billion won, more than 2.5 times that of last year, to support discounts of up to 40%. As a result, the average consumer price of the top 10 Lunar New Year seasonal products during the three weeks before the holiday was 3.5% lower than last year. The price of apples, which was more than 30% higher than last year in early January, was reduced to a level with a 10.4% increase, but prices of pears and other fruits as well as facility-grown vegetables remain high.

A customer is purchasing apples at Hanaro Mart Yangjae Branch in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

First, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs aims to stabilize domestic supply of agricultural and livestock products through proactive stockpiling and release, shipping support, and growth management. Cabbage and radish have already been stockpiled in February with 2,000 tons of cabbage and 6,000 tons of radish in preparation for supply instability from March to May.

Apples and pears are being shipped in a distributed manner from storage volumes held by the NongHyup and others until June, and to stabilize production this year, a 'Fruit Tree Growth Management Consultative Body' has been formed and operated jointly with the Rural Development Administration and local governments since last month. Through this consultative body, preventive spraying of pesticides and nutrients against cold damage, anthracnose, and fire blight, installation of cold damage prevention facilities, and tree condition management are inspected twice a month.

Support will be provided for wholesale market shipping costs of facility-grown vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers, and special discount sales events for irregular-shaped strawberries will be promoted. For chamoe (Korean melon), nutrient supply will be provided to improve quality.

In addition, to alleviate domestic supply shortages of fruits and others, the government plans to import the already announced low-tariff quota (TRQ) and allocated tariff volumes as quickly as possible. To directly reduce the burden of consumer shopping basket prices, 16.6 billion won out of the 30 billion won discount support budget will be invested to continue discount support focused on apples and pears until May, when alternative fruits such as chamoe are in full shipment.

Vice Minister Han said, "The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will monitor the supply and demand situation daily to stabilize agricultural and livestock product prices after the Lunar New Year holiday and expand domestic and international supply. We will continue to promote discount events in cooperation with producer organizations and distribution companies to alleviate the burden on consumer prices."

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