The majority of South Korean farmers are opposed to further liberalization of the country's agricultural market, a poll conducted by a state-run institute said Monday.
In the survey of 857 farmers nationwide, roughly 70 percent of the respondents expressed opposition to imported produce being allowed more access into the country, the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) said.
Of those who are opposed, 20.3 percent said they are absolutely against any additional action to open the local market, while 49.5 percent stressed foreign imports must be kept to a bare minimum to protect local growers.
However, the KREI reported that 29.4 percent accept market liberalization as an inevitable process.
With the exception of rice, South Korea already imports most agricultural produce from abroad, although the government levies import duties to limit the negative impact on local farmers. Most South Korean produce is more expensive than imports.
Half of all farmers said that if the market has to be opened, the government should compensate them for their losses in profit and production, while 28.4 percent said they would want assistance to raise their competitiveness against imports.
The poll comes as South Korea aims to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States that could oblige Seoul to lower tariffs on agricultural goods. Agricultural issues have been one of the main sticking points in the FTA talks that Seoul and Washington are aiming to wrap up by the end of March.
In a parallel poll conducted on urban residents, the institute found similar results, with 60.7 percent of 1,500 respondents saying they are against allowing foreign produce into the market, while 39.2 percent favor cheap imports.
Despite the general opposition to market liberalization, 47.9 percent of urban dwellers said they are against footing the bill to help farmers compensate for losses incurred by competition from cheap imports.
"They said farmers need to raise their competitiveness to more effectively cope with imports," a KREI researcher said.
He added that 37.4 percent of respondents living outside farming communities said they would consider the quality and safety of goods as determining factors in purchasing agricultural products, and another 36 percent said they will buy local produce even if it is more expensive. Slightly less than a quarter said they would buy cheaper produce regardless of origin.
Respondents said they pay close attention to food safety when selecting vegetable, meat and grain products, while taste is important when picking fruit.
Meanwhile, 78.7 percent of farmers and 73.9 percent of urban dwellers said locally-grown agricultural goods are safer to eat than those raised in the United States.
Seoul, Feb. 19 (Yonhap News)
Majority of farmers oppose further agricultural market liberalization |
