South Korea extends tariff exemption for imported fruits

Published 2024년 6월 13일

Tridge summary

The Korean government has extended the tariff exemption for ten imported fruits until the end of September, including bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and more, in an effort to combat food price inflation. This comes as consumer prices rose by 2.7% in May compared to the previous year, despite a slight decrease from the peak in March. The government has also implemented tariff reductions on 12 food ingredients and a quota-based tariff adjustment for seven more food materials. However, the tariff exemption may not lead to lower prices in the second half of the year compared to the first, and there are concerns about potential oversupply due to large volumes of South African grapefruit and Australian oranges entering the market.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The Korean government has announced it will extend tariff exemption for ten imported fruits until the end of September. Bananas, pineapples, mangoes, grapefruit, kiwifruit, avocados, mangosteens, cherries, durian and mandarins will all benefit from zero import duty until 30 September. The tariff exemption was due to expire at the end of June, but Korea’s deputy prime minister and finance minister Choi Sang-mok announced plans to extend the programme last week as part of the government’s efforts to combat food price inflation. Speaking at a price-related ministers’ meeting last Tuesday (4 June), Choi said consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 per cent in May versus the previous year. While this marks a slight decrease from the previous month (2.9 per cent) after peaking at 3.1 per cent in March, he said the battle to curb inflation was far from over. “The inflation rate has slowed to 2 per cent, but the overall price level has heightened to cause difficulties in the ...

Source: Fruitnet