The incomes of North Korean farming households have fallen significantly since the country began operating state-run food shops nationwide, Daily NK has learned.
State-run food shops provide rice and other grains to ordinary consumers at prices less than what can be found in local markets.
According to a Daily NK source in South Pyongan Province on Friday, the incomes of farming households last year were 25 to 30% lower than in previous years due to poor agricultural production last year and state-run shops coercing farmers to sell them grain.
After harvests, farmers usually sell the share of production earmarked for personal use to market grain merchants or sell it into markets themselves. Following the harvest of 2021 and 2022 — when state-run food shops were operating — officials working for the shops went around farms to coerce them to sell the crop yield that farmers had traditionally taken for themselves.
FARMERS GET FAR LESS SELLING TO SHOPS THAN TO MARKETS
Generally speaking, farmers can sell their rice for at least KPW 5,000 a kilogram at markets, but can only get KPW 3,800 to 4,000 if they sell the rice to state-run food shops. Given the approximately 30% difference in what they can get, farmers tend to prefer to sell their rice to markets.
However, the state-run food shops have been collecting rice from farmers in a coercive way under various pretexts, telling the farmers that they can become “patriotic farmers” and “loyal to the regime” if they contribute rice. The shops also call the rice farmers contribute to the state “patriotic rice.”
Moreover, of the rice taken from farmers, the shops add an additional KPW 500 to 700 to each kilogram of rice that is sold to ordinary consumers.
However, last year’s poor harvest meant that there has been less rice to go around, resulting in a situation where farmers have had less rice to use or sell.
According to figures announced by South Korea’s Rural Development Administration last December, North Korea’s food production in 2022 was estimated at 4.51 million tons, a 3.8% fall from 4.69 tons in 2021.
The situation differs from region to region, but in South Pyongan Province, farmers feel that last year’s production fell far short of previous years, with some saying that 2022’s rice production was just 60 to 70% of 2021’s production.
Excess agricultural production has fallen 30 to 40% compared to the previous year, and farmers are being coerced to sell their own share of the harvest at prices 30% less than what they can get at markets. What this means is that the incomes of farming households cannot go anywhere but down, the source explained.
In fact, one farmer told Daily NK that he takes a KPW 150,000 loss when he sells 100 kilograms of rice to the state-run shops, and a loss of KPW 1.5 million when he sells a ton.
“A farming household can survive a month on KWP 150,000, and 10 months on KPW 1.5 million, so we farm for a year and then we have no money to live on the next year,” he said.
“The government talks about developing and promoting agricultural villages, but state-run food shops are making the lives of farmers harder,” the farmer complained.
FOOD SHOPS SELL POOR QUALITY RICE
However, state-run food shops are far from strict about the quality of rice they buy from farmers, which means that some farmers are turning over low-quality rice that is damp or has impurities, such as having stones mixed in with the grains.
In fact, the poor quality of rice has become a focus of complaints by consumers of the state-run food shops.
Specifically, consumers are saying that while the rice is cheap, “its quality is equally low, and if you pick out the edible rice, there’s little price difference with the markets.”
Meanwhile, given the fact that the state-run shops do not sell grain all the time, critics say the shops are having little effect in stabilizing the market price of rice.
Cho Chung-hee, director of Good Farmers and an expert on North Korean agriculture, said that the shops are unable to provide regular sales of grain because of the country’s insufficient agricultural production and issues in procuring the rice from farms, adding that the amount of grain available to the shops is “extremely small.”
Cho went on to say that the shops could have a positive impact on stabilizing food prices in North Korea if they operate normally, “but if the current situation continues, it is unlikely they will have an effect on stabilizing rice prices.”
Recently, high-ranking North Korean cadres have been conducting frequent tours of state-run food shops nationwide to inspect how they are operating, which suggests that the authorities are aware of the problems suffered by the shops.
North Korean state-run media reported on Feb. 7 that Premier Kim Tok Hun visited state-run food shops in the city of Nampo to ascertain how well they are distributing food, even demanding that measures be taken to improve food distribution.
Kim also made onsite inspections of several grain distribution centers and state-run food shops in South Pyongan and North Pyongan provinces on Jan. 28, instructing that measures be created to deal with food distribution issues.
North Korean authorities have announced that they will discuss agricultural issues and the future goals of agricultural development during the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee set to be held later this month. The results of this meeting will make clear whether the country will take new measures to resolve problems with the state-run food shops.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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