aT Acting President Kim Chang-guk Says Importing Brazilian Eggs Aims to Diversify Import Sources

Kim Chang-guk, acting president of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), stated regarding the import of fresh eggs from Brazil that "we considered the aspect of diversifying import sources."

Responding to a related inquiry by Representative Kim Yong-tae of the People Power Party during a parliamentary audit of affiliates of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held by the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee today (the 14th), Acting President Kim replied, "We figure out whether we can bring in eggs from other countries if an emergency situation arises domestically."

He went on to explain, "We imported eggs from Denmark and Brazil to diversify our import sources, and the volume imported was small, fitting for a pilot introduction."

Representative Kim criticized, "The Brazilian eggs were imported right before the President's visit to Brazil. Even if it is a pilot project for import source diversification, distributing eggs in the domestic market that cost 1,464 won each at one-tenth of the price is wrong."

Meanwhile, Acting President Kim also expressed his intention to expand discount support for agricultural and livestock products at traditional markets and small-and-medium-sized supermarkets.

In response to Rebuilding Korea Party Representative Shin Jang-shik pointing out that discount support is concentrated on large supermarkets, Acting President Kim replied, "This year, we are concentrating up to 58 percent of the discount support budget on traditional markets and small-and-medium-sized supermarkets."

According to Representative Shin, out of the 388.056 billion won executed in discount support for agricultural and livestock products from January to September this year, the share for large supermarkets was 43.2 percent, while traditional markets accounted for only 13.7 percent.

Acting President Kim stated, "Traditional markets have aspects where it is difficult to hold year-round discount events because payment systems are not linked," adding, "We will upgrade the support system moving forward so that traditional markets and small-and-medium-sized supermarkets do not experience disadvantages."

The issue of fraudulent bidding in the school meal electronic procurement system also came under scrutiny.

Cases such as dividing businesses under the names of family members or acquaintances to participate in bidding were pointed out.

Acting President Kim explained, "As there were many duplicate registration businesses, we improved the system," adding, "We have introduced a multiple certification system and also introduced a monitoring system to block businesses using the same IP."

He further added, "We have significantly expanded joint inspections and uncovered many cases," and "We will establish grounds to strongly penalize illicitly participating businesses and work to ensure that such businesses do not occur."

Issues regarding inflating performance and receiving government subsidies through duplicate registrations of the same transactions or substance-less transactions in the agricultural and marine products online wholesale market were also raised.

Acting President Kim stated, "We conducted a full inspection this year targeting 250,000 cases ranging from the early operation of the online wholesale market to transactions last year," and "Short-distance transactions and transactions involving the same person were discovered and excluded from government support targets."

He added, "Going forward, we plan to foster transactions centered around high distribution improvement effects."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.