President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a ministry briefing held at Cheong Wa Dae's banquet hall on Thursday. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a ministry briefing held at Cheong Wa Dae's banquet hall on Thursday. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae-myung and Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryeong have each posted on social media calling for an expansion of farm subsidies in South Korea.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Song took to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday to detail the state of farm subsidies that had come up during a ministry briefing the previous day.

Song said South Korea's per-farm agricultural subsidy stood at 5.19 million won ($3,490) based on last year's figures — well below the EU's 25.8 million won (based on 2023 data) and Japan's 9.67 million won (based on 2024 data).

She added that subsidies as a share of farm income also lagged behind, with Korea at 30.7 percent compared with 49.4 percent in the EU and 62.7 percent in Japan.

"I will do my utmost to pay closer attention to the interest the president has shown in agriculture and rural communities, and to ease, even if only a little, the hardships facing our farmers," Song said.

President Lee responded the same day by quoting Song's post on X, stressing that "agriculture is a critically important strategic security industry" and that "to protect food security and save rural communities, farming and farmers, we must increase agricultural subsidies — starting now."

Lee noted that revenue from the special tax on agricultural and fishing villages had surged on the back of a more active stock market, improving the funding outlook. He also stressed that while market opening was unavoidable for a trade-oriented country seeking new markets, it was equally important to support sectors harmed by such opening so that real losses were minimized.

Lee also expressed appreciation for Song's work, saying he was grateful that "Minister Song and the officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs have been working hard and delivering strong results."


soohan@heraldcorp.com