Risk minimisation: South Korean ministries urge national information-sharing collaboration to combat illegal food trade
The five institutions involved in this data-sharing agreement were the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), Ministry of Environment, Korean Customs Service, National Institute of Technology and Standards and Korea Trade Security Management Institute.
“All of these organisations have been working to protect social safety and national health by blocking illegal exports and imports, verifying food and pharmaceutical safety, verifying compliance with safety standards and more,” Vice Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Yu-mi said via a formal statement.
“However, there has been an uptick in recent numbers of incidents such as false reports and illegal trade incidents such as bypass imports, and the information barriers that currently exist between ministries has resulted in a limitation to timely responses.
“As such, this new business agreement has been formulated and signed in order to help South Korea more systematically manage risks including sharing pertinent risk-related information between ministries and dispatching experts.
“This will be crucial in the efforts to block illegal exports and imports at the borders, and protect social safety and public health.”
South Korea has been in the news for several trade-related issues this year including extremely high amounts of heavy metals detected in non-food products already being sold overseas, but more recently the discovery of 34 imported confectionery items containing marijuana, kratom and other illegal substances being imported into the country.
“In order to reduce the number of such incidents, we will systematically share information on the reporting, approval, and detection of various products such as foods and medicines which were individually managed by each ministry at the customs and distribution stages,” said MFDS.
“We will also be holding future inter-ministerial consultations to identify risk trends, so as to prevent blind spots in the import of illegal goods.
“In September 2024, there has also been the establishment of a National Safety Collaborative Information Team that comprises representatives and experts from each ministry.
“This team will work jointly with customs to designate illegal and hazardous goods as targets for customs inspection based on inter-ministerial risk information, and will act as a ‘catalyst’ by circulating risk information to their ministries.”
Pre-emptive response
Government operations in South Korea are often considered to be more traditional than most, and it is plain from this agreement that the ministries have come to realise that the removal of traditional communication barriers can speed things up greatly.
“Through this agreement, it is expected that the removal of information barriers between ministries can create significant inter-ministerial collaboration synergy effects,” said MFDS.
“This will allow us to pre-emptively respond to government-wide risks [and] create a safe and reliable export and import environment, especially regarding items that relate to the health and safety of the people.”
