(Muan=Yonhap News) Reporter Hyeong Min-woo = Jeonnam Province announced on the 19th that it will purchase 190,000 tons of public reserve rice for the 2025 harvest.
This year's purchase plan for Jeonnam Province is 101,000 tons of regular rice, 29,000 tons of eco-friendly rice, 31,000 tons of mountain rice, and 29,000 tons of powdered rice.
This accounts for 30.5% of the national purchase volume of 625,000 tons, and is a record high, increasing by 26.4% compared to last year.
The annual purchase volume in the province was 123,000 tons in 2021, 153,000 tons in 2022, 141,000 tons in 2023, and 151,000 tons in 2024.
The purchases will be made through on-site distribution facilities such as rice processing centers (RPC) and drying and storage facilities (DSC) for the convenience of farmers, with the purchase period ending on November 30 for mountain rice and December 31 for unhulled rice.
To adjust rice production, this year, the volume newly converted to eco-friendly rice will be purchased in full if the farmers wish to do so.
The eco-friendly rice purchase varieties are the same as regular rice, with additional pesticide residue tests.
Rice with detected pesticide residues will be recalled or converted to regular rice, and the corresponding farmers will face the cancellation of eco-friendly certification and a 5-year restriction on participating in public reserves.
Purchases will be made from October to December, applying a nationwide single price based on the average mountain rice price (based on 80 kg) converted to brown rice (40 kg).
An interim settlement payment of 40,000 won will be made immediately after the purchase, with the final settlement payment scheduled for December 31.
Park Hyun-sik, Director of the Jeonnam Provincial Agricultural, Livestock, and Food Bureau, said, "Please thoroughly check the purchase varieties and manage moisture to ensure that the difficult harvest due to record-breaking high temperatures and frequent rainfall this summer is not in vain," and "Please follow safety protocols at public reserve rice purchase sites and be careful to prevent traffic accidents when moving to the purchase site."