By Kim Daye
Contributing Writer
Restaurant Everest is a little Nepal in Dongdaemun, Seoul. The aroma of curry fills the air, Bollywood music from television sets the mood and paintings of Hindu deities and Tibetan symbols adorn the walls. The restaurant is as authentic as it gets -- except its rice.
And the owner H.M. Gurung has little control over that. Basmati rice, long-grain type grown in India and Pakistan, completes the subcontinental food with its fragrance and fluffiness. Basmati, however, has never been officially imported into Korea.
Left with few choices, Gurung cooks Thai long-grain rice with spices like cardamons to create the basmati-like flavor.
Gurung isn't the only one struggling with the missing staple. As of Feb. 28, more than 868,000 registered foreigners ― a nearly two-fold increase from 485,144 in 2005 ― were living in Korea. Korea Immigration Service's statistics show that the figure includes 26,450 Thais, 7,993 Pakistanis and 4,160 Indians who eat mainly fragrant long-grain rice.
The number of restaurants serving international cuisines also shot up. According to the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center, the Borderless Village in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, hosted 119 international-cuisine restaurants including 87 Chinese, 5 Nepalese-Indian and 3 Thai in August 2009.
Obtaining spices and herbs has been relatively easy as various spices are freely imported under the tariff regime and many kinds of herbs are locally grown. It hasn't been the same for rice.
South Korea opened its agriculture market in 1995 under the World Trade Organization (WTO) following the Uruguay Round of multilateral negotiations, but has restricted rice imports through non-tariff measure called the minimum market access (MMA).
Instead of liberalizing the rice market with tariffs, the government chose to import a limited amount of rice, which would gradually increase. When the agreement expired in 2004, it renegotiated with nine rice exporters including the U.S., China and Thailand, upholding the MMA but raising the rice import quota from 4 percent to 8 of total consumption. The rice can be imported and auctioned only by Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation (aT).
Types of rice imported remain limited to short-grain and mid-grain varieties known as japonica. In 2008, the aT imported 2,000 tons of long-grain variety from Thailand while over 61,000 tons of short-grain and mid-grain varieties were imported from the U.S. and China, according to the aT data. The amount does not include any types classified as "special rice" including Thai jasmine rice, basmati and Italian Arborio rice.
Because of trade restrictions, foreigners who prefer fragrant, non-sticky rice to Korean sticky rice have depended on individual travelers bringing 5 kilograms or less of rice in their luggage, which is allowed by Korea Customs Service.
When Gurung opened Everest eight years ago, his friends brought basmati for him from India, he says. Customs inspection, Gurung says, used to be loose, and travelers often carried more than 5 kilograms of rice. The control toughened, and because of a short supply of basmati, he stopped serving it at Everest.
Groceries selling imported food in Itaewon and Ansan still rely on these small-scale importers.
And here is news: the aT imported 90 tons of jasmine rice whose scent is similar to that of basmati, after the state-run company carried out a research for the demand. The sales of 90 tons of jasmine rice will be a litmus test of domestic consumers' interest in special rice varieties.
Shashikant Dwivedi, a 25-year-old Samsung employee hailing from Delhi, India, welcomes the news. Dwivedi works in Suwon and lives at a nearby foreigner-only residence called Taste of India. The residence cooks India meals everyday with Thai long-grain rice.
"Yes, we welcome action of the government as this would make easy to have the taste of Indian rice here. I do feel (currently served) Thai rice is somewhat thick and does not taste like Indian rice," says Dwivedi. "Indian rice is not available in enough quantity so we manage by making Indian rice rarely."
But the news isn't sweet to everyone's ear. Any sign indicating further opening up of the agriculture market worries farmers.
"We are in principle against any rice imports because, regardless of how small the quantity of the imported rice is, it enters the market," says Koak Kil-ja, the policy director of a progressive farmers' association.
"The government has supported farmers to grow functional rice varieties. And now they want to import more foreign rice. They should help us with research and development, instead."