Preemptive Response to Next Year's Fruit Price Instability... Launch of the 'Apple Safety Project'

Proactive Tree Condition Management
Demand Survey for Disaster Prevention Facilities Such as Frost Damage Protection

The government has decided to strengthen preemptive measures to stabilize fruit prices, which have been soaring mainly for apples and pears. Since the main cause of fruit price instability is the decrease in production due to frequent weather disasters such as cold damage and hail, this year they will proactively manage the condition of the trees.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held a fruit tree growth management council inspection meeting on the 7th to ensure stable production of 2024 fruit crops and requested thorough responses from related agencies.

At this inspection meeting, current weather and growth trends, appropriate timing for spraying cold damage prevention pesticides by region and fruit type were shared, and the management status of local governments was checked. They also discussed farmers' response guidelines and effective education and publicity plans to disseminate these to farmers. Park Su-jin, Director of the Food Policy Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, who chaired the meeting, said, "This year’s growth management is more important than ever before," and encouraged, "Please complete the supply of pesticides by mid-March, before the flower buds of apples and pears begin to sprout, to ensure timely pesticide application through thorough management."

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Due to the unprecedented low-temperature damage and anthracnose last spring, which greatly reduced fruit production, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs formed and has been operating the 'Fruit Tree Growth Management Council' since January this year. This council includes the Rural Development Administration, local governments in major production areas, the NongHyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation), and product self-governing organizations to thoroughly manage tree conditions preemptively.

Through this council, the Ministry has established plans for supplying cold damage prevention pesticides to major fruit production areas, conducted demand surveys and selected recipients for disaster prevention facilities such as cold damage prevention, completed removal of fire blight ulcers in fruit trees, and is monitoring weekly weather conditions and the timing of bud break and flowering by fruit type.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said, "To ensure a bountiful fruit harvest this year including apples, we plan to preemptively inspect and manage seasonal risk factors such as cold damage prevention in March and April, spring drought, and anthracnose before harvest," adding, "We will also seek long-term measures to establish a stable fruit production foundation in response to climate change."

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