150 Billion Won to Be Invested for Stabilizing Agricultural and Livestock Product Prices

The government has decided to inject an emergency fund of 150 billion KRW to stabilize the prices of agricultural and livestock products. The number of supported delivery price items will be expanded from the existing 13 to 21, and the discount budget for agricultural products in March and April will be more than doubled.

On the afternoon of the 15th, Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, held an emergency meeting on price-related issues at the Government Seoul Office with Song Mi-ryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Song Myung-dal, Vice Minister of Oceans and Fisheries. They discussed follow-up measures related to the 150 billion KRW emergency fund for stabilizing agricultural and livestock product prices, which was decided by the ruling party and government on the same day.

The government plans to significantly expand the scale of support for agricultural product delivery prices from the current 20.4 billion KRW to 95.9 billion KRW. The support targets will be expanded from the current 13 items, including apples and tangerines, by adding 8 items such as pears and grapes, totaling 21 items, with further expansion if necessary.

The support price per item will also be raised to up to twice the current level. The discount budget for agricultural and livestock products, which allows consumers to receive discounts of up to 10,000 to 20,000 KRW when purchasing at about 16,000 nationwide distribution outlets such as large supermarkets, will also be expanded.

The discount support scale for March and April will be increased from the original 23 billion KRW to 50 billion KRW, more than doubling, and an additional 18 billion KRW worth of traditional market agricultural product discount coupons (30% discount), which were previously only issued during holidays, will be issued in March and April as well.

For livestock products, using funds such as the Hanwoo and Handon self-support funds, the scale of discounts and delivery price support will be expanded from 10.9 billion KRW to 30.4 billion KRW. Through this, discount events of 30-50% for Hanwoo, Handon, and chicken will be expanded throughout the year, and the delivery price support for eggs will be doubled (from 500 to 1,000 KRW per 30 eggs).