[Reporter's Notebook] Agricultural products wholesale market policy, focus on substance rather than speed

‘Gyogagsal-u’, a Korean proverb meaning to caution against solving a problem in a way that kills the cow by trying to fix the shape of its horns, is a warning against making things worse when trying to solve an issue. There is concern that the ordinance proposals submitted this year by the Seoul City Council to reform the agricultural wholesale market may result in precisely this outcome. The two revision ordinance proposals submitted this year mainly include measures for distribution agents to promote pallet dispatch and the introduction of one irregular day of closure per month for all agricultural wholesale markets within the city. These issues are still hotly debated between agricultural producers and distributors. However, the Seoul City Council, which is not an "expert," has proposed an ordinance with unilateral content. The side effects of hastily introducing policies can be seen in real cases. A representative example is the mandatory pallet dispatch of watermelons ...