{"id":55044,"date":"2023-05-16T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T07:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=55044"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:02:32","slug":"north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea changes grain shop regulations several times in first quarter of this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean authorities changed regulations for state-run grain shops several times in the first quarter of this year,<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0which suggests that the country has yet to establish clear rules regarding their management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>According to multiple Daily NK reporting partners last Friday, North Korean authorities issued guidelines to grain shops in each region once or twice a month, with the rules including information about grain storage methods, grain sale prices, selling dates, per-person purchasing limits and how to handle and deposit funds.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rules were usually issued once a month, but sometimes they were issued two or more times per month. The guidelines that changed most frequently were those regarding grain sale prices and how much grain each person can buy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Generally, the central government unilaterally selected sale prices and informed the grain shops about these prices, which led to instances where the prices were either no different than market prices or differed wildly from prices found in markets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily NK has determined that grain prices at state-run grain shops are set at an optimal level based on the market prices established by three organizations: the Cabinet\u2019s Agricultural Commission, the Economic Development Committee and State Planning Commission\u2019s State-set Price Establishment Department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, not only does North Korea&#8217;s population distribution differ region-to-region, but grain supplies and how much grain shops can sell to individual customers differ as well, so determining optimal sale prices and per-person sales limits is proving difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, criticism emerged inside North Korea that central government agencies should not be setting one-size-fits-all prices because agricultural production differs in the flatlands, mountain regions, and cities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response to this criticism, North Korean authorities recently supplemented regulations for grain shops that set price floors and ceilings while allowing provincial, city and county people\u2019s committees and rural village management committees to adjust sale prices within those limits in accordance with local conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily NK <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-operates-more-than-280-state-run-food-shops-nationwide\/\">reported<\/a> in early May that there are about 280 grain shops operating nationwide, with some also selling potatoes, soybeans, red beans and other regional specialities depending on the area.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean authorities are also using the operation of the grain shops as an excuse to re-verify and update household members, residential addresses, workplaces and ration status. These reverification efforts appear aimed at preventing double sales and hoarding given that the country faces a dire shortage of food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Grain shops use old distribution charts for grain sales<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Daily NK reporting partners also said that grain shops are selling grain based on distribution charts used in the country&#8217;s past public distribution system.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That distribution system is defunct, but the grain shops are nonetheless selling grain using distribution limits based on age and gender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These limits state that an ordinary worker can receive up to 700 grams of grain a day, while elementary school students can receive 400 grams. For example, individuals can make a single purchase this month at grain shops and buy up to 15 days of grain \u2014 for an ordinary worker, this means 10.5 kilograms of rice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem facing grain shops, however, is lack of supply. As a result of insufficient stocks of food, the shops sell only five days of grain per person or limit sales to only 5 kilograms of grain per household.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Consumers are not really benefiting from the sales of grain at the shops because supply shortages make it impossible to buy that much food from them, one reporting partner told Daily NK.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20230512-5\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean authorities changed regulations for state-run grain shops several times in the first quarter of this year,\u00a0which suggests that the country has yet to establish clear rules regarding their management. According to multiple Daily NK reporting partners last Friday, North Korean authorities issued guidelines to grain shops in each region once or twice a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":42954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645],"tags":[710],"class_list":["post-55044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","tag-food-shortages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korea changes grain shop regulations several times in first quarter of this year - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. Korea changes grain shop regulations several times in first quarter of this year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korean authorities changed regulations for state-run grain shops several times in the first quarter of this year,\u00a0which suggests that the country has yet to establish clear rules regarding their management. According to multiple Daily NK reporting partners last Friday, North Korean authorities issued guidelines to grain shops in each region once or twice a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-16T07:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T07:02:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/11\/\ubd81\ud55c-\uc2dc\uc7a5-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"488\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korea-changes-grain-shop-regulations-several-first-quarter-this-year\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Seulkee Jang\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857\"},\"headline\":\"N. 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