A source says the authorities in South Hamgyong Province plan to rank and award the enterprises that participated in the province’s recent People’s Consumer Goods Exposition, with units receiving the Order of the National Flag, Order of Korean Labour, Medal of Labor Merit and other honors.
With light industrial factories and units producing daily necessities taking part, the expo featured about 75,000 items of roughly 570 kinds of consumer goods.
According to a Daily NK source in South Hamgyong Province, the provincial party committee and people’s committee carried out on Dec. 18 a review of the People’s Consumer Goods Exposition held from Dec. 10.
There were many exemplary units, but the clothing produced by the Tonghungsan Unha Garment Factory received the highest evaluation. The factory’s winter cardigans were the most popular and most sought out product at the expo.
Accordingly, the factory reportedly received many awards and commendations, but officials in some other factories apparently resent this.
They are complaining that since the state founded Tonghungsan Unha Garment Factory to earn foreign currency, it would naturally produce relatively higher quality products now that it is doing full-scale business in the province.

Meanwhile, as they hand out the awards, North Korean authorities are reportedly calling on enterprises to make substantive contributions to the people’s livelihoods rather than just show off.
That is to say, they called on Tonghungsan Unha Garment Factory to sell products at slightly less than market prices with low margins so that the people may benefit and South Hamgyong Province — where a textile “city” is located — can take the lead in consumer goods production.
The People’s Consumer Goods Exposition has from its inception aimed to improve the livelihoods of the people, focusing on provincial light industry. The source said another aim — albeit unspoken — of this year’s expo is to allow the authorities to provide residents with low-priced consumer goods to mark the solar New Year.
However, things are unlikely to unfold as the authorities hope as the light industrial factories that took part in this year’s expo may be unable to cover their supply and labor costs if they sell their goods cheaply.
This is because they produce their goods by purchasing expensive raw materials in the markets.
Moreover, the source said state procurement shops are also purchasing — at cost — the goods produced by the enterprises at the expo to put on display for sale.
Though state procurement shops usually sold items imported from China, such goods are currently in short supply.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.