Price freeze for grains is criticized as a stopgap cure

While the Ministry of Agriculture said it is satisfied, farmers and the opposition party lashed out at the government's decision to freeze its purchase price of rice for next year.

Seoul will pay 167,720 won ($132) per 80-kilogram sack of top-grade rice. It is the fourth time the government maintained the grain purchase prices in recent years － the prices were also frozen in 1994, 1995 and 1997.

The government will also buy less grain next year － 789,000 metric tons, which is down 4.7 percent compared to this year. Seoul will submit the grain purchase plan to the National Assembly on Saturday.

"The decision on the rice purchase price freeze was to enhance competitiveness of domestic rice production," Agriculture Minister Kim Dong-tae said.

The opposition Grand National Party said that the price freeze is unacceptable, saying it will not help farming families in the long run.

Economic experts agreed. "The price freeze is a stopgap measure," said Sakong Yong, a Sogang University professor and a member of the Agriculture Ministry's grain policy advisory committee. "The market may malfunction due to the overstocking of rice." The advisory committee suggested last month at least a 4 percent cut in purchase prices.

The government purchase price of rice is 5.8 times higher than in the United States and 9.1 times higher than in Thailand.

Farmers' groups are also protesting the price freeze, but they have a different take than the other critics.

"The purchase price should go up about 3 percent in step with the estimated rise in the cost of living," a source at the Korea Advanced Farmers Federation said.

by Cheong Chul-gun