From Finger-Signal Auctions to Electronic Bidding: Four Decades of Purpose

When Yang Sang-guk visited Seoul’s Garak Agricultural and Marine Products Wholesale Market as a 21-year-old strawberry farmer in March 1986, he saw a 4-kilogram box selling for 35,000 won. A bill sent to his family 15 days later showed that the farmer had received only 15,000 won.

The gap convinced Yang that he could not remain a farmer without understanding the market. Three months later, he moved to Garak Market and began delivering goods with a rented cart. He later handled invoices for produce wholesalers during the day and learned the trade at night.

At the time, wholesalers often formed commodity groups, set prices themselves and issued invoices as they pleased. Garak Market, established in 1985, gradually introduced listed auctions, an open competitive bidding system. Yang passed the qualification exam and became one of the first auctioneers. He began auctioning produce professionally at Korea Agricultural Products in 1991.

The first auction price formed at Garak becomes a benchmark for wholesale markets, distributors, retailers and supermarkets across the country. In the early years, auctioneers worked punishing hours. Yang sometimes left the funeral hall after his grandmother’s death to handle delayed auctions. He started around 4 p.m. and often finished at about 11 the next morning, auctioning corn, cucumbers, pumpkins and eggplants in succession.

The old system relied on wholesalers signaling bids with their fingers while auctioneers watched and called the result. Today, electronic terminals automatically award the highest bid. Yang says he once shouted for more than five hours a day and still suffers seasonal throat pain, but he remains proud of working to help farmers receive fair prices. He also lectured nationwide on quality, grading and logistics.

Yang now worries about the proposed market wholesaler system, under which distributors would buy large quantities directly from farmers and sell them to retailers and distribution companies. Although the system aims to cut costs by reducing distribution stages, he says prices could become opaque. He fears farmers with less market information could lose income and choice over where to sell, repeating the abuses of earlier intermediary practices. He wants the existing auction system strengthened alongside improvements to online wholesale markets.