Today's Date:  Friday, July 13, 2012

1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

ROKG to provide 33.4 billion won as direct payment to upland crop [Korean: BYK]

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=001&aid=0005694923

Summary: The Korean government will be providing a direct payment to upland crop farmers as compensation to the farmers that will suffer damages coming from the KORUS FTA. The total amount of budget allocated for the direct payment for upland crops is 33.4 billion won (US$ 30.4 million).  The total amount of direct payment to be paid to paddy rice farmers is 611.1 billion won (US$ 555.5 million).

2. MARKETING ISSUES

Emart Acquires NS Mart Stores [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2012/07/13/0318000000AKR20120713056000003.HTML

Summary: Emart announced on July 13 that it signed a MOU with NS Homeshopping recently to acquire 23 grocery supermarkets under NS Homeshopping.  The acquisition will increase the number of ‘Super Supermarket (SSM)’ grocery stores under Emart to 129.

Super Supermarket Expands Sales of Bananas and Other Imported Agricultural Products (Korean, WYS)

http://www.nongmin.com/article/ar_detail.htm?ar_id=204940&subMenu=articletotal

Summary: Distribution law exempts mandatory off-days or limits on business hours for SSM that produces more than 51% of the profit from agricultural and fisheries out of the SSM’s total annual gross. This was implemented to minimize the negative impact from FTA on the people in agricultural and fishery industry. SSMs have started to increase the sales of agricultural products in order to be exempt from government’s regulations.

3. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

Ministry of Ag to Develop Horse Industry … Gov’t Support Programs to Launch Next Year [Korean, OSY]

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/economy/2012/07/12/0301000000AKR20120712198000002.HTML

Summary: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery, and Food (MIAFFF) announced its horse industry support plan on July 13.  Gov’t support programs that will start in 2013 under the initiative will include (1) designation of special horse industry zones where horse training facilities and educational institutes will be located (2) designation of education institutes that will generate certified riding instructors and horse managers (3) establishing 50 youth riding teams (4) opening horse riding programs for disabled people and low income families.  The goal of the MIAFFF plan is to increase total annual revenue of the local horse industry from the current 2.8 trillion won to 4.5 trillion won by 2020.  Total number of horse riding population is also aimed to increase from the current 25,000 to 60,000.