MAFRA Minister Song Mi-ryeong faces police complaint over farmland survey and egg import allegations

[Financial News] Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryeong has been reported to police over allegations that she caused confusion among farmers by pushing ahead with a comprehensive farmland survey and wasted public funds during the import of Brazilian eggs.
According to police and other sources on the 26th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency received a complaint against Minister Song on the 25th, alleging abuse of authority, coercion, obstruction of business, occupational breach of trust and other offenses.
The civic group Committee for Measures to Protect Ordinary People’s Livelihoods (Seominwi), which filed the complaint, claimed that Minister Song fueled farmers’ anxiety and confusion by failing to adequately consult agricultural workers and experts while pursuing a comprehensive farmland survey.
MAFRA has maintained that the farmland survey is intended to update farmland information and build a database, not to impose penalties or conduct enforcement. The government previously conducted a baseline survey of 10.13 million farmland parcels nationwide and classified 2.84 million parcels, about 27%, as suspected violations of the Farmland Act.
Seominwi also said Minister Song bears responsibility for occupational breach of trust and other offenses in connection with imports of Brazilian eggs.
According to the complaint, the government spent 81.9 billion won to import 130 million eggs from four countries: the United States, Thailand, Brazil and Denmark. The complainants say that, for Brazilian eggs imported last July, costs including air freight and customs duties came to about 44,000 won per tray of 30.
MAFRA’s position is that the measure at the time was a pilot program to prepare for possible egg supply disruptions caused by outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI), among other factors, and to diversify import sources.


[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter