Mango Prices Drop 20% Under Tariff Quota... Pork and Chicken Now Require Distribution Within 40 Days

Follow-up Actions for Improving the Tariff Quota System

Establishing an Integrated Management System for the Import, Distribution, and Sales of Agricultural and Livestock Products

The sale price of mangoes at large supermarkets, which are subject to the tariff quota system, has been reduced by 20% compared to before, demonstrating the effectiveness of the policy. However, products with high storage stability, such as pork and chicken, are considered at risk for delayed release, so the government has decided to intensively manage them by requiring distribution within 40 days.

On May 7, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced these measures as part of the “Follow-up Actions for Improving the Tariff Quota System” during a meeting of the “Special Task Force for Managing Essential Consumer Prices.” The tariff quota system allows the government to temporarily lower or raise the tariff rate on a certain quantity of specific goods when there is a need to import them to stabilize supply and demand.

To prepare for these follow-up actions, the government monitored the import, storage, and sales processes of items subject to the emergency tariff quota—including bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and frozen mackerel—from March 9 to April 16 of this year. As a result, the sale price of mangoes at large supermarkets, where the tariff rate was reduced from 24% to 5%, dropped by 20%. The lower tariff directly led to lower consumer prices. Likewise, bananas, which received a 5% tariff quota (down from the previous 0–12%), saw prices decrease by 4%, pineapples (previously 30%) had an 11% price drop, and the price of frozen mackerel, with its tariff reduced from 10% to 0%, fell by 3%.

An official from the Ministry explained, “Especially in cases where the importer supplies directly to large supermarkets without going through wholesalers or retailers, the price reduction effect for bananas is relatively greater. For imported fruits such as mangoes and bananas, the distribution period is limited due to their fresh produce characteristics, and for frozen mackerel, ongoing management has prevented any delays in market distribution.”

Accordingly, the Ministry plans to impose a mandatory rapid distribution requirement on items that can be stored for long periods, have a history of intentional release delays, or have complex domestic distribution systems and are under intensive management. Previously, in February of this year, the Korea Customs Service conducted a special inspection targeting the abuse of the tariff quota system and uncovered three companies that failed to release their quota-allocated products from bonded zones to the market within the required 45 days.

The Ministry official added, “First, for livestock products such as pork and chicken, which can be stored for relatively long periods and have previously been caught violating release deadlines, the bonded release period will be shortened from 45 days to 40 days. Through a dedicated organization, we will establish an integrated management system to monitor the entire process of importing, distributing, and selling agricultural and livestock products under the tariff quota system in real time.”

In addition, the government plans to revise the Customs Act within the year. The amendment will strengthen the criteria for late penalties on import declarations after goods are placed in bonded zones, reducing the grace period from the current 30 days to 20 days. It will also allow the customs director, at the request of the relevant ministry, to order importers to immediately release tariff quota goods from bonded zones when rapid supply is necessary. In particular, starting in August, the Ministry will shorten the mandatory release period for sugar, a tariff quota item, from the current six months to four months, and will add five items (frozen mackerel, frozen hairtail, frozen pollack, frozen squid, and refrigerated squid) to the list of imported seafood products subject to distribution history management.

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