Starting from 2026, Garak Market will mandate the full packaging of scallions.

Expectations for the elimination of dust generation and product degradation Site demonstration, standardization of specifications, and even subsidies planned (Korea Agricultural News=Reporter Park Hyun-wook) Starting from January 2nd next year, all scallions shipped from Garak Market will be required to be fully box-packaged. As problems of dust generation and flying dust from the shipment of produce and degradation of the quality of other agricultural products have accumulated over decades, the Seoul Metropolitan Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (President Moon Young-pyo) has come up with a strong institutional improvement card. The corporation has been pushing for facility modernization since last year with the construction and operation of two new vegetable halls, but only scallions, an exception item for listing, have been repeatedly problematic as produce shipment has become entrenched. Large amounts of dust were generated, lowering the quality of the working environment as well as that of other agricultural products. To address this, the corporation temporarily moved the produce scallion transaction to the "Temporary Import Area of Previous and New Sites" and has been preparing for box packaging for over a year. Starting in April of this year, a "Packaging Promotion Council for Produce Scallions" was formed with wholesale market corporations and middle wholesalers to coordinate the detailed schedule. In the process, major production areas such as Boseong and Muan in Jeollanam-do, Cheongju in Chungbuk, Seosan and Asan in Chungnam, and Pyeongchang in Gangwon were visited directly to demonstrate packaging, listen to difficulties, and promote the initiative. The corporation also produced new box specifications and distributed them continuously to the production areas, and through the Market Management and Operations Committee, changed the name of the exception item from "produce scallions" to "produce box scallions." The handling guidelines for middle wholesalers were also revised to center around standard specifications, completing the institutional framework. The corporation plans to provide some subsidies to those shipping in box packaging from 2026 to lower the initial burden. Additionally, full promotion will be carried out through announcements on the Garak Market homepage, text notices to shippers, distribution of promotional leaflets, and installation of banners. Compliance with packaging and pallet unloading will be checked on-site, and strong measures will be taken, such as immediately returning unpackaged quantities in case of violations of the regulations. An official from the corporation stated, "Starting from January 2nd, 2026, all scallions shipped to Garak Market must be fully box-packaged" and "We will achieve improvement of the market environment and normalization of distribution order through the active cooperation of shippers."