2024-03-25 09:46:45
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok and Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryeong inspect Hanaro Mart on-site
‘Measures to improve the competitiveness of the fruit industry’ are being prepared… “Stock flexible”
Prepare for problems such as extreme weather… New orchard introduction service
Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, said, “We are preparing measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the fruit industry to use this as an opportunity to improve distribution structure problems,” adding, “We are fundamentally improving the competitiveness of the domestic fruit industry, such as flexing the quantity of items to be stocked and introducing new orchards.” “We will come up with measures to increase it,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok said this when meeting with reporters at the Seongnam branch of Hanaro Mart in Gyeonggi Province, where he visited to inspect the implementation of price stabilization measures on the 25th. Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryeong accompanied the on-site inspection that day.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi responded to the issue of the distribution structure where the retail price of fruit has fallen due to government support measures but the wholesale price has remained the same, saying, “We need to strengthen the competitiveness of the distribution structure of not only fruit trees but also agricultural products,” and “We need to strengthen the competitiveness of the distribution structure of agricultural products, etc. due to abnormal weather conditions.” “It is an opportunity to examine structural problems or areas that need improvement,” he explained.
The government plans to prepare fundamental ‘measures to improve the competitiveness of the fruit industry’ in each stage, including ‘production-distribution-consumption’, jointly with related ministries to prevent a recurrence of price increases due to poor apple harvest like last year.
In particular, we plan to significantly expand the supply of disaster prevention facilities such as cold damage and focus on creating next-generation orchard complexes with more than twice the productivity of existing orchards, focusing on new cultivation areas.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, “I hope this will be an opportunity for the fruit industry to become competitive at all stages, including production, distribution, consumption, and export,” and added, “In the case of production, we will have facilities that can prevent and prepare for abnormal weather, cold damage, etc. in advance.” “The government will provide support,” he said.
In addition, it was decided to significantly expand the contract cultivation volume of apples and pears, which is about 105,000 tons this year, and to strengthen supply and demand management by expanding the selection and storage facilities of the Agricultural and Fishery Products Distribution Center (APC).
Regarding this, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, “In the case of distribution structure, supply and demand management is necessary, and we are preparing measures to fundamentally increase the competitiveness of the domestic fruit industry by properly managing supply and demand by flexing the quantity of items to be stocked and introducing new productive orchards.” “He explained.
The government is pursuing services to introduce new orchards. Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, “I think the awareness of the problem of increasing the competitiveness of the fruit industry has grown through this opportunity.” He added, “We will prepare additional measures by supplementing what was included in the announcement of competitiveness measures in the first stage and use this opportunity to improve the fruit industry and our agricultural products.” “I hope this will be an opportunity for us to fundamentally improve the competitiveness of related industries,” he added.
As there is great uncertainty in prices due to abnormal weather conditions, the government plans to continue to operate the emergency response system for prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products, regularly check price and supply and demand trends, and further strengthen field-based price stabilization efforts through on-site visits.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, “Despite the recent decline in the prices of major agricultural, livestock and fishery products, we are well aware that the burden of prices in people’s shopping carts is still high,” and added, “We will further strengthen our efforts to stabilize food prices.”
Meanwhile, prices of agricultural products rose sharply until February due to supply and demand instability caused by bad weather at the beginning of the year, but in March, thanks to the expansion of government supply price support and discount support, and the supply of discounted fruits directly imported from the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT), the price of most items decreased. Prices are showing a downward trend.
Starting on the 21st, the government will supply imported fruits preferred by consumers, such as oranges and bananas, to E-Mart, Lotte Mart, and Homeplus at discounts of up to 20%, and plans to supply more than 1,400 tons of bananas and 600 tons of oranges during March.
An official at Hanaro Mart explained, “In addition to the government’s expansion of support for delivery prices and an increase in the discount rate (up to 30%), we are selling major agricultural and marine products at up to 40-50% discount through the mart’s own discount.”
Regarding livestock and marine products supply and demand, price trends and discount events, Nonghyup has been holding discount events using Korean beef self-support funds at about 750 Hanaro Marts nationwide since the 21st. It was reported that egg and chicken prices are stabilizing downward due to support for the unit price of eggs (1,300 won per 30 pieces) and chicken (1,500 won per kg).
In addition, he explained that in the case of marine products, supply and demand are good as the quantity stored by the government and the private sector is supplied to the market, and prices are maintained at a stable level.
Of the 800 tons of 6 popular fish species (pollock, mackerel, squid, cutlassfish, croaker, and dried anchovies) held by the government, 492 tons were released, and 161 tons of the 200 tons of squid held by the private sector were released. According to the Korea Maritime and Fisheries Development Institute, the average price increase rate of six popular fish species in March was 1.8% lower than the previous month.
The government plans to continue providing price stabilization funds until agricultural product prices stabilize and expand delivery price and discount support targets so that users of small and medium-sized marts and online shopping malls can also receive benefits.
By early April, fruit quota items will be quickly expanded from the current 24 types to 29 types, and direct imports of fruits will be expanded from 2 types of bananas and oranges to 11 types, including pineapples and mangoes, to be supplied to consumers at low prices without margin.
[세종=뉴시스]
2024-03-25 09:46:45