KOREA, REPUBLIC OF (9 February)
Cereals currently in the ground are barley and wheat, planted towards the end of last year and due for harvest from April. Rice, the main cereal, is sown from mid-May and harvested from mid-September. The 2004 paddy output is estimated at 6.76 million tonnes, some 12 percent above the weather-affected last year, but 2 percent below the average of the previous five years. Due to change in dietary patterns, per capita consumption of rice has steadily declined from 120 kg in 1990 to 80 kg in 2004.
Cereal import in 2004/05 is estimated at about 13 million tonnes (3.9 million tonnes of wheat. 8.6 million tonnes of maize and 0.25 million tonnes of rice). The Government has agreed to almost double quotas from current 4 percent (share of imports in domestic consumption) over the next decade and make imported rice available directly to Korean consumers.