Government’s Countermeasure to Stabilize Vegetable Price

As the consumer price goes up high, caused by the skyrocketed price of vegetables due to the serious drought, the government began to prepare an emergency countermeasure. The Bank of Korea forecasted that the rise rate of the consumer price for this month will maintain about 5 percent (compared to last year’s same month) as it was in April and May.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) announced yesterday a price stabilization plan whose essential feature is to ship the vegetables cultivated by contractors of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) to the market earlier than they planned.

For that reason, the shipped amount of vegetables grown by contractors will increase from current 400 ton per day to 450 ton.

The government also decided to ship 105,000 ton of major vegetables cultivated by contractors, including cucumbers (63,000 ton), pumpkins ( 35,000 ton), and eggplants (7,000 ton) to the market earlier than they originally intended.

Besides, the government raised the contracted amount of radishes and Chinese cabbages from mountain areas from last year’s 8,000 ton to 155,000 ton. They also decided to advance the date of shipment earlier by about 10 to 15 days.

The auctioning price of high quality Chinese cabbages at Karakdong Market in Seoul was 4.85 million Won per 5 ton truck-full amount, which is an increase of 158 percent comparing with last year. Radishes were sold at 5 million Won, an increase of 65 percent. And carrots (20 kg) were sold at 25,500 Won (82 percent increase), cabbages (10 kg) at 4,700 Won (58 percent), pumpkins (10 kg) at 10,000 Won (20 percent) and hot peppers (10 kg) at 24,000 Won (13 percent).

A representative of the Bank of Korea said yesterday, ``in every year, the price of vegetables during June went down because it is a time of shipping. But, contrastingly in this year, the price is skyrocketing.`` ``It seems to be difficult to maintain the 4 percent of the consumer price this month.`` ``Although I am not sure how this drought can influence on the long-term base consumer price, it is sure that a red light turned on in maintaining the 4 percent of the consumer price``, he added.

Kim Sang-Chul sckim@donga.com