Jun-Byeong Yoon, “Nonghyup Public Market, distributed 1 trillion won worth of imported agricultural products over 3 and a half years.”

(Jeongeup = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Dong-cheol = The Nonghyup Market, established to develop sales channels for domestic agricultural products and preserve farm income, was found to have distributed over 1 trillion won worth of imported agricultural products over the past three and a half years.

According to data submitted by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation on the 16th by Rep. Yoon Jun-byeong of the Democratic Party of Korea (Jeongeup, Gochang, Jeollabuk-do), a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, the total number of imported agricultural products handled at the Nonghyup Economic Holdings and Agricultural and Livestock Cooperatives fairgrounds from 2023 to June 2026 was 427,179 tons, and the handling amount amounted to 1.0337 trillion won.

The annual handling weight showed an increase every year to 113,242 tons in 2023, 125,554 tons in 2024, and 126,865 tons in 2025, and 61,518 tons were distributed in the first half of this year.

The proportion of imported agricultural products in the total transaction amount was 5.6-5.8%.

By trial center, the Daejeon trial center (KRW 110.9 billion) had the largest cumulative handling volume, followed by the Garak trial center (KRW 97.8 billion) and the Guri trial center (KRW 71.6 billion).

By item, in addition to bananas (KRW 336.8 billion) and oranges (KRW 134 billion), shiitake mushrooms (KRW 41 billion), carrots (KRW 35.4 billion), and pumpkins (KRW 28 billion) were included.

In particular, the volume of shiitake mushrooms more than doubled from 7.4 billion won in 2023 to 14.9 billion won in 2025.

Rep. Yoon pointed out, “Rather than opening up a market for agricultural products produced by farmers, Nonghyup is concentrating on easy commission business by distributing a large number of imported agricultural products,” and added, “The indiscriminate listing and distribution of major agricultural products that threatens the right to survival of domestic farmers is an action that shakes the foundation of our agriculture.”

He then emphasized, "We must set strict limits on the items and quantities of imported agricultural products handled in the Nonghyup public market, and completely revamp the handling performance evaluation system to meet the original purpose of the public market."