South Korea raises disaster recovery payments for fishermen

South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on August 4th that it will revise the standards for calculating natural disaster recovery costs. The updated guidelines aim to increase financial support for fishermen impacted by disasters.

The revised compensation rates will introduce seven new items, including seaweed seeds, automatic feed spreaders, and specific types of traps. Additionally, compensation for 18 existing items will be raised. Notably, the compensation for rockfish (Ureok), frequently damaged by high water temperatures and red tides, will increase by 38% to 2,817 won per fish. Flatfish (Gwang-eo) compensation will rise by 12-15% to 4,920 won per fish. The average increase across these 18 items is 44%.

“

The increase in unit prices is expected to provide at least some help to fishing households that have suffered damage from natural disasters.

This move follows the ministry's elevation of its emergency response from a policy director-led team to a minister-led task force in response to high water temperature warnings. The National Fisheries Research and Development Institute has issued high water temperature warnings and advisories for several sea areas. As of August 3rd, aquaculture damage was reported for 206,083 fish.

Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Hwang Gyoo-woo expressed hope that the increased compensation will offer some relief to affected fishing households. He pledged to continue identifying items with significant on-site damage for inclusion in future revisions and to adjust recovery rates to reflect actual market prices, thereby enhancing the disaster recovery system.

“

We will continue to identify items with significant actual damage in the field and add them, and increase recovery unit prices to the level of actual transactions.