Korea grapples with excess rice

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By Lee Kyung-min

The government is expected to struggle to find storage facilities for excess rice that it plans to purchase from farmers, a longstanding problem compounded further by this year's good harvest thanks to favorable weather conditions, according to market watchers, Monday.

Local consumption of the staple crop is unlikely to climb, mostly because many Koreans associate rice intake with weight gain.

The stagnating demand overwhelmed by supply is the reason the government and farmers tussle every year over how much excess rice should be bought with taxpayer money.

Under the law, the government can buy rice if the excess volume is more than 3 percent of the annual estimate or if the price falls by over 5 percent from average figures.

Korea produced 3.8 million tons of rice last year, up 10.7 percent from 2020. This year's estimate is 3.8 million tons, whereas the estimate for consumption is likely to be 3.5 million tons.

Shortage of storage facilities

Data from Rep. Choi Chun-sik of the ruling conservative People Power Party and a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans, and Fisheries Committee showed that the rice inventory managed by National Agricultural Cooperative Federation stood at 610,000 tons, as of last month. This is twice that of last year's figure, which was at about 300,000 tons.

The two-fold increase has led to a third of the country's storage becoming full, a reason why the lawmaker says the government should build new storage facilities.

"Many farmers are concerned that agricultural cooperatives nationwide will not be able to accept excess rice ahead of this year's autumn harvest season," he said.

More rice, he added, should be bought by the government, which he said was a critical step to maintaining food self-sufficiency.

"The government should expand assistance to help farmers and storage operators with maintenance costs to keep the quality of the staple crop high."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announces policy measures every year to counter plummeting rice prices.

The ministry-affiliated Rural Development Administration developed floury rice to better utilize excess rice. It is easier to store and more suited to food processing and is, therefore, considered a better way to reduce the import of wheat. The ministry plans to replace as much as 10 percent of imported wheat with floury rice.

Increased use of the new rice, it added, will contribute to bolstering the country's food self-sufficiency needs.

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