Quarantine officials control access to a pig farm in Gimpo, west of Seoul, on Sept. 23, 2019, after another suspected case of African swine fever was reported earlier in the morning from a farm in the area. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Wednesday that it will improve the compensation payment standards for livestock culling after collecting opinions from livestock farms.
Livestock culling compensation is paid to farms that cull their livestock due to domestic animal infectious diseases such as African swine fever (ASF), highly pathogenic avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease.
In these cases, however, the government has offered less compensation to farms that are not equipped with legally required disinfection facilities or do not comply with disinfection guidelines.
Thus far, a variety of groups advocating the rights of livestock farms have called for the government to limit excessive cuts to compensation.
They also urged authorities to provide more benefits to exemplary farms as well as to increase the overall level of compensation reflecting the latest trends in production costs and market prices.
In response, the ministry plans to analyze the compensation standards of Japan, Australia and the European Union and develop an improvement plan by the end of this year on the basis of opinions from experts.
In particular, it is reviewing the idea of introducing differential compensation between farms that cull animals as a preventive measure and ones where such diseases actually occur, and limiting the degree of compensation reduction for exemplary farms.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
