Transaction amount reaches 200 billion won as online wholesale market becomes active

The agricultural product online wholesale market, which officially launched on November 30th last year, recorded a transaction volume of 200 billion won on August 20th this year. The first date when the online wholesale market exceeded 100 billion won in transaction volume was June 17th, and an additional 100 billion won was transacted in the following two months. As a result, the transaction volume of the online wholesale market is growing rapidly. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Minister Song Mei-ling) sees this growth as a result of the active transaction of peaches and plums, which are seasonal agricultural products in summer.

Minister Song Mei-ling held an online meeting with excellent Agricultural Product Processing Centers (APCs) to promote online wholesale market transactions, where she collected opinions from the field and encouraged production and distribution officials.

Officials from the Agricultural Products Distribution Center (APC) who attended the meeting with agricultural corporations Cham Co., Ltd., Songwon APC, Naju Jogong Corporation, and Gangwon United Business Group
stated, “If you trade in the online wholesale market, settlement is made immediately, so there is no need to worry about receivables, and since you can trade directly with buyers without going through a wholesale corporation, brokerage fees are reduced. Therefore, it is of great help in stabilizing profits.” They emphasized, “However, in the beginning, various support such as joint sorting fees and logistics fees are needed to attract many sellers and buyers,” and requested active support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Accordingly, Minister Song Mei-ling said, “We plan to increase direct transactions between producers and consumers through online wholesale markets, reduce unnecessary distribution processes, and narrow the gap between the price farmers receive and the price consumers pay,” and promised, “In addition to the current producer support projects such as the Smart Agricultural Product Distribution Center (APC), next year we plan to prepare new projects such as logistics cost support for producer organizations shipping from online wholesale markets, and expand the budget for joint sorting fees.”

Editor. Hong Se-yeong