Full-Scale Inspection of This Year's Public Stockpiling Purchases Underway

This Year's Public Reserve Rice Includes Market Isolation Volume

The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service announced on the 29th that it will conduct purchase inspections for 400,000 tons (rice basis) of this year's public stockpiled rice and 95,000 tons of market isolation volume according to the rice supply stabilization measures announced on the 15th.

On the 7th, rice purchasing is underway at the Suracheong United Agricultural Cooperative Rice Processing Complex (RPC) in Bibong-myeon, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The total purchase volume of this year's public stockpiled rice is 400,000 tons, of which 320,000 tons of bagged rice will be directly inspected at over 130 branch and office locations nationwide by the NAQS. For 80,000 tons of paddy rice, private inspectors have been conducting inspections since August at 361 locations including nationwide Rice Processing Complexes (RPC) and Drying and Storage Facilities (DSC), timed with the harvest season.

Purchase inspections are scheduled to be conducted at over 1,000 inspection sites nationwide by December 31, starting from Buyeo-gun in Chungcheongnam-do, Jeonju-si, Gimje-si, and Buan-gun in Jeollabuk-do, according to the allocated volume by province. Considering the characteristics of floury rice varieties that require storage in low-temperature warehouses, inspections will be conducted as needed according to the harvest schedule and farmers' desired purchase schedule.

Additionally, as the government decided to isolate 200,000 tons from the market?exceeding the expected surplus production (128,000 tons) to stabilize rice prices during the harvest season?95,000 tons, excluding the pre-isolation volume (105,000 tons), will be purchased by the end of the year in addition to the 400,000 tons of public stockpiled rice.

Park Seong-woo, head of the NAQS, said, "We will do our best in rice inspections to stabilize the rice market and ease farmers' concerns," adding, "We ask farmers to double-check whether their shipments meet inspection standards and cooperate with guidance for purchase-related workers to prevent safety accidents at purchase sites."

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