Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation Reduces E-Procurement Fees for Eco-Friendly School Meals in Gyeonggi Province
Suwon NewsPublished 2019.10.22 07:04
Annual budget savings of 34 million won expected to lower school meal prices and improve meal quality
[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 22nd that the Gyeonggi Eco-Friendly School Meal Support Center, operated by the province, has received a fee waiver for the school meal material specialized e-procurement system (eaT) operated by the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation's Agro-Fisheries Cybertrade Exchange. The system uses a fee rate of 30%.
The school meal e-procurement system is currently being used by most schools in the province, with each school paying monthly usage fees ranging from 5,000 won to 30,000 won. Gyeonggi Province also pays approximately 112 million won annually to use the system to supply school meal ingredients.
Taking into account the public nature of the 'Eco-Friendly School Meal Support Project' that has been operated since 2009 to increase income for eco-friendly farms in the province and improve meal quality for students, the province has continuously requested the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation (aT) to waive the fees.
In response to Gyeonggi Province's request, the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation improved its fee-charging standards on the 17th to waive 30% of the system usage fees when local governments' school meal support centers supply food ingredients for the purpose of expanding consumption of regional agricultural products.
Following this 30% fee waiver measure, Gyeonggi Province will save 34 million won annually in school meal budgets and will be able to reduce school meal supply prices by the amount of the waived fees.
Meanwhile, the province has allocated 47.8 billion won in business expenses this year to supply eco-friendly quality agricultural products to 1.391 million students at 2,170 schools in the province.
Kim Ki-jong, director of the province's Eco-Friendly School Meal Center, said, "Taking this opportunity of the eaT fee waiver, we will discover various policies to lower school meal supply prices and do our best to supply high-quality eco-friendly school meal ingredients."
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