State to increase farm product reserves to stabilize prices

The government will move to increase the country’s reserves for farm and fishery products in an effort to help stabilize consumer prices, the Finance Ministry said.

After a meeting of economic policymakers on Friday, the government said it plans to actively buy up farm products in advance and hold them in reserve to deal with a spike in prices. It added emergency imports of products that are in short supply can also be utilized to help increase the stockpile and alleviate inflationary pressure.

“Seoul will increase its stockpile of such products as cabbages to 20,000 tons this year from 8,400 tons in 2011, with numbers for chili peppers and fisheries also being increased,” the ministry said in a press release.

Reserves for chili peppers will reach 6,000 tons from 3,400 tons last year, with stockpiles for saury, pollack and squid all being raised.

Officials added that measures will be taken to procure sufficient quantities of beans and other grain products the country imports from abroad.

The measures come as South Korea’s consumer prices grew at a modest 2.5 percent in May from a year earlier, marking the third month in a row that prices have increased at a 2 percent-range pace, down from 4 percent reached for all of last year.

Despite slow growth, prices for food and farm products jumped 6.4 percent on-year last month, fueled by a sharp spike in prices for cabbage, chili pepper powder and many fisheries products. 

(Yonhap News)