South Korea: Weight fraud in local customs; farmers requesting joint measurement of all imported onions

Published 2024년 11월 29일

Tridge summary

Onion farmers in South Korea are expressing concerns over a potential resurgence of 'weight fraud' in imported onions, suspecting that private importers are taking advantage of less stringent customs procedures at local offices to smuggle in Chinese onions. The farmers are calling for a joint measurement of all imported onions by the Korea Customs Service and producer groups to address these concerns. The average wholesale price of domestic onions in October fell by 8% year-on-year, while the total import volume saw a 5% decrease. Despite a 135% tariff on imported onions, their price is still close to that of domestic onions, leading to suspicions of weight deception. Organizations like the Korea Onion Association and the Onion Mandatory Self-Help Management Committee are urging the Korea Customs Service to strengthen its crackdown on excessive weight in imported agricultural products.

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

Original content

Onion farmers urge the government Concerns over recurrence of ‘weight fraud’ Crying out over Chinese smuggling Following March of this year, onion farmers have once again urged the government to strengthen crackdowns on imported onions that are being brought into the country with weight fraud. In particular, as there are suspicions that private onion importers are importing through local customs offices with relatively less stringent customs procedures, this time, they are requesting a joint measurement of all imported onions entering the six local customs offices together with producer groups. The average wholesale price of domestic onions in October was 1,164 won per kg (product) based on the Garak-dong Agricultural and Marine Products Wholesale Market in Seoul, down 8% from the previous year. This was due to the increase in the daily average import volume as the amount of onions imported in 2024 increased compared to last year. However, the total import volume of onions, ...

Source: Agrinet