Fees collected by the wholesale corporation, mandatory investment in facilities.

A bill to improve outdated agricultural and marine product wholesale market facilities has been submitted to the National Assembly. On the 12th, Representative Song Ok-ju (Democratic Party, Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province) introduced a revision to the "Agricultural and Marine Product Circulation and Price Stabilization Act" that mandates local governments, as the operators of public wholesale markets, to use the fees collected from wholesale corporations and market wholesalers for facility modernization. Current regulations allow local governments to collect fees for the maintenance and management of wholesale markets from wholesale corporations or market wholesalers, up to 5% to 5.5% (in Seoul) of the transaction amount. The annual fees collected from the 31 public wholesale markets nationwide amount to 80 billion won. However, the condition of the facilities is severely outdated, with 97% of the 31 wholesale markets, which have been in operation for over 20 years, in need of ...