Online Wholesale Market Leads to Large Fall 

in Distribution Costs and Stabilizes Prices

The agriculture ministry focuses on making the online wholesale market fully functional at the earliest possible time, 

thereby reducing distribution costs and making the benefits go to all farmers, consumers, and distributors.

Sejong, 19 March 2024 — Since 30 November last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has been operating 

an online agricultural products wholesale market that any wholesaler and retailer can register to use if they meet certain eligibility 

requirements. The ministry established the online platform as a fundamental solution to the structural problems of the conventional 

wholesale markets. As instances of those problems, trade of agricultural products is allowed only to a small number of distributors 

at a special section of an area and there is inefficiency in transportation and distribution of products. 

The online wholesale market has recorded a steady volume of transactions to a level of KRW 17.2 billion (5,600 tonnes) as recorded 

on 18 February. It has shown significant results: the distribution stages have been streamlined, and logistics costs have fallen. 

The findings of the analysis of actual transactions on the online platform show a reduction in distribution costs and an increase 

in prices received by farmers. A further growth in the transaction volume is also expected to make a substantial contribution to stabilizing prices.

The ministry will make the online wholesale market take off by taking advantage of such benefits for society. Agriculture Minister 

SONG Miryung said, “We will mobilize every resource to achieve the transaction volume target of KRW 500 billion this year 

so that the online wholesale market will be fully functional at the earliest possible time.”

To this end, the ministry will focus its effort on the three tasks below. It will also organize and operate a team dedicated to supporting 

the online wholesale market.

(1) The ministry will focus on expanding the user base of the online platform, with having all of the 460 Agricultural Products Processing 

Centres (APCs) satisfying the membership requirement (an annual transaction volume of no less than KRW 5 billion) register as members 

within the first quarter of this year. Concurrently, the ministry will encourage distributors to register their products on the platform so that 

retailers such as small- and medium-sized grocery stores, restaurants, and food-processing companies can compare and purchase 

agricultural products from across the nation. 

(2) In the second half of this year, the ministry will expand the product categories to include beef, beans, and others and start the trade of processed 

food products such as stevia tomatoes (sugar-tasting tomatoes) on the online commerce platform. The ministry will also evaluate the necessity 

of relaxing membership requirements, as well as the ways to enhance efficiency in transactions by integrating “aT Bid”—the electronic bidding 

system for reserves of agricultural products run by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) —into the online wholesale market platform.

(3) As for the existing offline wholesale markets, the ministry will modernize their facilities and thereby transform them into a regional integrated 

logistics hub connecting producers and consumers. These logistics hubs will provide logistical services such as consolidated shipping, distribution 

of an assortment of different agricultural products, breaking down of bulk products into small packages, and so on. This is expected to bring greater 

efficiency to the logistics of agricultural products traded online. 

Minister Song said: “Amidst a prolonged rise in prices of agricultural products, the online wholesale market will assume greater importance 

in that it will cut down distribution stages. We will make every policy effort to make the online wholesale market fully functional at the earliest 

possible time, thereby reducing distribution costs and making the benefits go to all farmers, consumers, and distributors.”