A licensed public wholesale market, operating in Greater Seoul.
KURI is one of the licensed wholesale-market corporations operating inside the Guri Agricultural and Fishery Products Wholesale Market — a public market designated under Korea's Agricultural and Fishery Products Distribution and Price Stabilization Act and operated since 1997.
What a public wholesale market is
Korean public wholesale markets are regulated venues where farm produce is gathered, auctioned, and distributed to retailers, restaurants, and processors. Auctions are open. Prices are recorded and published. Participation is restricted to licensed shippers, licensed wholesale-market corporations such as KURI, authorized intermediate wholesalers (중도매인), and approved buyers (매매참가인). The system exists to give producers a fair price and buyers verified provenance.
KURI's role
As a wholesale-market corporation (도매시장법인), KURI receives consignments from shippers, conducts daily auctions through nationally licensed auctioneers, settles payments to shippers under the regulated timeline, and maintains the records that keep the market transparent. We operate two product divisions — fruits and vegetables — each with its own auctioneers, schedule, and settlement team.
Position in the supply chain
- Origin — farms and cooperatives across Korea, plus a small number of import partners
- KURI — auction and settlement at the Guri public wholesale market
- Buyers — intermediate wholesalers, secondary distributors, foodservice operators, and large retailers serving the Greater Seoul region of approximately 26 million consumers
The Guri market in numbers
- Opened: 1997
- Location: northeast Greater Seoul, on the eastern edge of the metropolitan area
- Categories: fruits, vegetables, fishery, livestock — operated by separate licensed corporations
- Operating days: 6 days per week (Monday to Saturday); closed on Sundays and Korean national holidays
Why it matters to overseas partners
The public-market system gives buyers verified provenance and gives sellers a fair, time-stamped price. For overseas partners, it is the most transparent point of entry into Korean produce trade — every transaction is recorded under the public-market system and every participant is licensed.