The Chinese onion market is in full swing: The government of South Korea continue to follow the supply and demand manual

Chinese Onion

Fresh Onion

Vegetables

South Korea

Published Jun 21, 2023

Tridge summary

While the middle-late harvest is in full swing in major onion producing areas across the country, producers and distributors are dissatisfied with the government intentionally inducing a price drop while releasing imported Chinese onions to the wholesale market. In particular, as the manual for supply and demand control of agricultural products continues to release imported onions even though it is not in a crisis stage, criticism is raised that the government has set out to set prices for unreasonable domestic agricultural products under the pretext of price stability.

Original content

Domestic onion prices, which continued to rise earlier this year, have recently continued to decline. On the 16th, at Garak Market in Seoul, onions were traded at an average of 1,073 won per 1 kg product. This is 20.2% lower than last year (1344 won). Onion prices showed stronger than last year, fluctuating between 1,400 and 1,600 won between January and March this year due to the lack of inventory from last year. However, from the end of March, with the shipment of early onions, a downward trend began, and recently, it has slumped to the 1,000 won level and turned weak compared to last year. Experts believe that the recent decline is the result of government intervention in the market. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced in a press release earlier this month that it plans to release 5,000 tons of imported onions to the wholesale market within June at around 200 tons per day. It is understood that the imported onions held by the government were ...

Source: Nongmin