Korea renames farm direct-sales certification as designation system

South Korea's agriculture ministry said Tuesday it has revised the enforcement decree of the law on promoting direct trade in agricultural products, renaming the country's "excellent agricultural direct-trade business certification" program as the "excellent agricultural direct-trade business designation" system.

The change follows an amendment to the parent Regional Agricultural Products Utilization Promotion and Agricultural Direct Trade Activation Act, which was published on April 21 and takes effect Oct. 22. The decree carries out the same renaming so that the subordinate rules match the revised law.

The revision replaces "certification" with "designation" throughout the decree, including the title of Article 14 and the terms for the marks businesses use under the program: "certification mark" becomes "designation mark," and "certification institution" becomes "designation institution for excellent agricultural direct-trade businesses." The grounds for canceling a business's status were also widened: Article 15, paragraph 1, item 2, now cites Articles 30(2)(4) through 30(2)(6) of the parent law, up from Article 30(2)(4) alone.

A separate change brings the country's newly created integrated special cities, formed through administrative mergers, into the program. Article 8, paragraph 1, which assigns the relevant duties to a "special city mayor," is amended to read "special city mayor and integrated special city mayor," and the designation requirements in attached Table 2 receive the same treatment. These provisions took effect on the day of publication, Oct. 20.

The rest of the decree takes effect Oct. 22, the same day as the amended law. The revision was issued as Presidential Decree No. 36774 and published by President Lee Jae-myung, with Prime Minister Han Sung-sook and Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung also named on the text.