Gov’t to inject additional $67 million into food price stabilization efforts ahead of Chuseok holiday

Korea will allocate an additional 90 billion won ($67.2 million) to stabilize the prices of major food items ahead of this month's extended Chuseok harvest festival holiday, on top of the 103 billion won previously announced, the Ministry of Finance and Economy said Wednesday.

The ministry unveiled the plan as the country prepares to celebrate the fall holiday from Sept. 24 to 27. The occasion is marked by visits to hometowns, family reunions, ancestral rites and preparation and consumption of specially prepared food.

The discount campaign, originally scheduled to run through Sept. 23, will continue until the end of the month.

The government will release another 2,000 tons of popular fishery products this month, supplementing an earlier batch of 20,000 tons.

It will work with 20 processed food manufacturers to offer discounts of up to 64 percent on 4,765 products, the ministry added, noting that the average cost of preparing a Chuseok ancestral rite table for a family of four was estimated at 331,089 won, down 2.3 percent from a year earlier.

Yonhap