From the 24th, seafood will also be traded in the online wholesale market

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Starting from the 24th, the online wholesale market for agricultural products will be expanded to the online wholesale market for agricultural and marine products. This expansion includes seafood in addition to the existing fruits and vegetables, grains, and livestock products to promote the early activation of the online wholesale market.

Previously, the government decided to diversify the product categories traded in the online wholesale market for agricultural products. The agricultural products online wholesale market has been operating since November last year under a regulatory sandbox demonstration exemption. Currently, only fruits and vegetables, grains, and livestock products can be traded, but the range of products will be expanded to include seafood.

Seafood is displayed at Gyeongdong Market in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

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Accordingly, on the 13th, Song Mi-ryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Kang Do-hyung, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, visited the control room of the agricultural products online wholesale market located in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, to inspect the operation status of the online wholesale market and discuss inter-ministerial cooperation plans to revitalize the market.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs explained, "The visit by the Ministers of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Oceans and Fisheries to the online wholesale market was to check the preparations for starting seafood transactions, which is currently underway, as part of the core tasks of improving the distribution structure of agricultural and marine products and revitalizing the online wholesale market. The ministers also held a Q&A session regarding the government's ongoing policies for stabilizing the supply and demand of agricultural and marine products and overall measures to improve the distribution structure."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is making efforts to stabilize supply and demand by releasing stockpiled quantities of major vegetables in response to agricultural product price conditions and applying tariff quotas to expand overseas supply of agricultural and livestock products that are in short supply domestically. In particular, for fruits and vegetables with recently high prices due to weather disasters, an emergency price stabilization fund of approximately 150 billion KRW is being invested to support delivery prices, provide discounts, and promote discounted direct imports of fruits, aiming to alleviate consumers' grocery price burdens.

In addition to short-term measures, the ministry plans to steadily implement the "Measures to Enhance the Competitiveness of the Fruit Industry (April 2)" and the joint inter-ministerial "Agricultural and Marine Products Distribution Structure Improvement Plan (May 1)" targeting a reduction of distribution costs by more than 10%, to stabilize prices through structural problem-solving in the production and distribution processes of agricultural and marine products.

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