Jeonnam Province Requests Government Support for Pear Sunburn Damage Recovery Costs

Estimated 10-30% Decrease in Pear Cultivation Area in Jeonnam
Request for Management Stabilization Fund Support and Policy Loan Repayment Deferral

Jeonnam Province has continuously requested the government to recognize sunburn damage to pears caused by last summer's heatwave as an agricultural disaster. The photo shows a pear farm in Jeonnam experiencing a surge in fruit drop due to sunburn damage. Provided by Jeonnam Province

Jeollanam-do announced that it has repeatedly requested the government to recognize sunburn damage (fruit sunscald) to pears caused by the heatwave in August and September as an agricultural disaster and to provide recovery funds.

Sunscald damage refers to the condition where the surface of the fruit is scorched and burned due to high temperatures and direct sunlight.

This year, the number of heatwave days in Jeollanam-do increased dramatically to 33.1 days, which is 3.5 times more than last year's 9.3 days. This figure is also four times higher than the average of 8.2 days.

Jeollanam-do estimates that sunscald damage to pears affects about 10 to 30% of the total pear cultivation area of 2,710 hectares.

This is the fourth time Jeollanam-do has requested the government to recognize sunscald damage as a disaster. The current request includes support such as agricultural management stabilization funds (3 million KRW per hectare) for affected pear farms, as well as deferment of policy fund repayments and interest reductions.

Since September, Jeollanam-do has proposed recognizing pear sunscald damage as a disaster, conducting damage surveys, and supporting the purchase funds for processing substandard products (1.4 billion KRW).

Furthermore, since this damage is mainly discovered after harvesting pears when bags are removed or during cold storage, and more than 50% of distribution has already taken place, there are practical limitations to conducting damage surveys. Therefore, it has also requested that the ‘Crop Disaster Damage Survey Records’ from the Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation) be utilized for the investigation, similar to the support cases for brown planthopper damage recovery.

Kim Young-seok, Director of the Food and Horticulture Division of Jeollanam-do, stated, “Since first receiving reports of the damage in September, we have been doing our best to explain the necessity of recovery support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and local members of the National Assembly, aiming to secure government support measures to stabilize farm management.”