South Korea will sell old rice in its stock to feed domestic animals to handle rising inventory and save money on corn imports, the agriculture ministry said Friday.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it will begin offering 99,000 tons of brown rice harvested in 2012 to local distributors later this month.
The rice will be sold at 200 won (17 cent) per kilogram, which is slightly cheaper than the price of alcohol beverages.
Farms will be required to mix about 5 percent of rice into the corn-based forage to pigs, cows and chickens.
The ministry said using rice as cattle feed will reduce growing stockpile management expenses, about 1.4 billion won per 10,000 kilograms, and cut costs on importing corn for farms.
The government has been grappling with a huge surplus of rice over the past years as Koreans eat less rice and more bread. The state-controlled rice stockpile reached 1.9 million tons at the end of 2015, according to ministry data. (Yonhap)