Intensive Origin Inspection for Seol Holiday... 3,000 Special Judicial Police and Others Deployed

Nonggwanwon, Lunar New Year Origin Labeling Inspection

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] The government is launching a focused inspection on product origins ahead of the Seol holiday. The government plans to strengthen on-site inspections to pre-COVID-19 levels by deploying over 3,000 special judicial police officers.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) will conduct a comprehensive inspection of origin labeling on Seol gifts and ritual items for 19 days from the 2nd to the 20th of this month. The inspection targets include manufacturers and processors of gifts and ritual items, telecommunication sales companies, and wholesale and retail businesses of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products.

On-site origin inspections will be reinforced to pre-COVID-19 levels. This measure responds to the increase in face-to-face transactions following the phased recovery from COVID-19. Accordingly, the number of businesses subject to on-site inspections this year is 230,000, an increase of 54,000 from last year's 176,000.

The inspection workforce has also been significantly increased. NAQS will deploy about 3,000 personnel, including special judicial police and cyber monitoring teams, for this inspection. In particular, NAQS plans to strengthen origin management for items with many non-face-to-face transactions by increasing the cyber monitoring team from 230 members last year to 300 this year, an increase of 70 members.

Specifically, NAQS will conduct inspections focusing on manufacturers, processors, and telecommunication sales companies from today until the 11th of this month. From the 13th to the 20th, inspections will focus on wholesale and retail businesses of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products in major cities where demand for Seol gifts and ritual items is concentrated. A NAQS official stated, "We will systematically inspect fraudulent distribution of origins by categorizing Seol gifts and ritual items by manufacturing, processing, and sales stages. We will focus on acts such as selling foreign products disguised as domestic or falsely marketing products as famous local specialties."

NAQS will strictly take action against businesses caught during this inspection under the 'Act on the Labeling of Origin of Agricultural and Fishery Products.' Businesses that falsely label origins will face criminal charges, including prosecution by the prosecution, and penalties of up to seven years imprisonment or fines up to 100 million KRW. Businesses that fail to label origins will be fined up to 10 million KRW.

Businesses that falsely label origins or fail to label origins more than twice will have their names and violations publicly disclosed on the NAQS and Korea Consumer Agency websites for one year. Additionally, NAQS will provide origin identification information for major agricultural products on its website to help consumers identify product origins.

An Yong-deok, head of NAQS, said, "To ensure consumers can purchase Seol gifts and ritual items with confidence, we plan to strengthen origin inspections focusing on suspicious businesses. If there is no origin labeling or if it is suspicious, please report it to NAQS."