January 17, 2007

South Korea to check farm import labels for violations

The South Korean government said Wednesday (Jan 17) that it would conduct a month-long campaign to detect labeling violations of imported agricultural goods before the Lunar New Year.

The move is to detect imports that are falsely labeled and packaged as locally grown products.

The false labels distort the domestic market and harm South Korean farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said.

Lunar New Year's Day, which falls on Feb 18 this year, is a major traditional holiday. The demand for domestic agricultural products would generally rise sharply during this period as special dishes are prepared.

As South Korean agricultural produce are invariably more expensive than imports, there have been many instances when imports were falsely labeled as local produce.

Violators found selling imports as locally grown produce could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison or fined 100 million won (US$106,600), the ministry said.

A total of 585 labeling violations were detected in 2006, with 280 cases investigated. Most violations last year involved imported pork, beef and chili powder.