By Kim Tae-gyu
Just a few months ago, the Korean government agonized over how to deal with surplus rice. Now, concerns are springing up that the country might face shortages of its staple food later this year.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFFAF) said on Monday that its rice reserve is expected to reduce to 880,000 tons this October from 1.5 million tons at the same time last year.
The fear is already taking grip because the agriculture minister has released more than 200,000 tons of rice from 2009 this year. It is the first time in the 21st century that the nation is supplying ``old rice,’’ or that harvested two years ago, to the market in volume.
``Old rice has been typically used for making alcohol or rice cakes. But this year, we released upside of 200,000 tons of old rice to meet the direct demand. We will further provide about 50,000 tons soon,’’ a MIFAFF official said.
``We have not taken similar measures since 2000. The predicted 880,000 tons in reserve is still higher than the ideal level of 720,000 tons.’’
The irony is that MIFAFF tried to come up with various ideas of consuming surplus rice by promoting rice liquor or rice snacks earlier this year.
Based on Statistics Korea’s data that Korea harvested 42.9 million tons of rice last year, MIFAFF originally expected that the country’s rice reserve would top 1.3 million tons, almost double the required level, at the end of this year.
``The amount was enough to feed Koreans for a year. Accordingly, we thought that supply would outrun demand and this prompted us to devise ways to cut down the surplus,’’ the official said.
``Yet, the reality was the opposite since demand outstripped supply. We have two possibilities; the data was wrong or the demand for rice jumped for some reason.’’
The ministry basically sees two causes. The first is that people increased their consumption of rice at a time when vegetable and meat values have appreciated. The second is that vendors store rice on expectations that prices would jump.
One solution to preventing a rice shortage is to have a bumper crop this autumn but the problem is that the country is feared to have a bad year.
``First and foremost, the amount of land devoted to rice growing shrank by 4.1 percent this year from 2010. And our farmers struggled this spring since a host of low quality seeds were marketed,’’ said a source familiar with the issue.
``In this climate, we are feared to have lean yields, which might end up causing the rice prices to rocket. The government is required to make plans on how to grapple with such a worst-case scenario.’’
The year-end reserve of rice was 850,000 tons in 2004 and fell to 695,000 tons in 2007 and 686,000 tons in 2008. But the figure rose again to 993,000 tons in 2009 and was up to 1.5 million tons last year.