The government will step up efforts to streamline the country’s distribution structure for farming products in a bid to ease their price hikes and keep inflation under control, the Finance Ministry said Friday.

South Korea’s consumer prices remain quite stable, but fresh food and other daily necessity costs have been rising in recent months, hurting the livelihoods of the ordinary working-class population.

In a move to induce price cuts, the government plans to shorten the overall distribution process from growers to consumers, suspecting that the recent price hikes of farming goods came mostly from complicated multi-stage distribution channels, the ministry said.

The decision was made during a price stabilization meeting held in Seoul.

The government will also push to nurture the so-called “distribution packers” in the livestock sector that will keep an eye on the whole distribution process from manufacturing to selling.

In the automobile and home appliance areas as well, the government plans to boost the remanufacturing market where used products are sold at much cheaper prices after being repaired and reassembled.

To help consumers make better choices in purchasing products and encouraging competition among producers, more information on products related closely to daily life of ordinary people will be provided, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Korea Center for International Finance submitted a report to the meeting on global raw material prices and their possible impact on prices in the market here.

The report said that international raw material prices will likely be stabilizing for the time being this year, which will help ease price hikes of imported goods for Korean consumers.

Despite growing demand spurred by recovering economies in major countries, more production in energy, farming and metal industries will likely ease price hikes, the report added. (Yonhap News)