RICE PRICES PLUMMET

[Anchor Lead]

Prices of rice are plummeting despite high inflation. Last year rice harvest was particularly good, but its consumption remains low. Warehouses are still packed with rice harvested last year, leaving no room for newly harvested rice this coming fall.

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A paddy is packed with green rice plants. Two months from now harvesting is to begin, but farmers are far from happy. That's because rice prices have been plummeting lately.

[Soundbite] Yoo Jae-woo(Rice farmer) : "Prices of fertilizer and pesticides have surged 30 percent, but rice prices are falling continuously."

In Gangwon-do Province, a 20kg sack of rice cost around 66,000 won in mid-July. That's 3,000 won less than during the same period last year. The price of rice is falling because the crop's harvest was particularly good last year. Some 156,000 tons of rice was produced in Gangwon-do Province in 2021. That's more than a 20 percent increase from the 127,000 tons produced in 2020. Nationwide, rice harvest last year grew by 10 percent from the previous year. However, rice consumption is decreasing and demand for rice is going down, resulting in plunging prices. This grain factory in Cheorwon-gun Country is still filled with more than twice as much rice as in previous years. The local government tried to sell as much of it as possible in the first half of the year.

[Soundbite] Kim Young-bo(Cheorwon Agricultural Technology Center) : "Public officials held a campaign to sell rice. We even used Live commerce and expanded funding for promoting rice consumption."

Last year annual per-capita rice consumption in Korea was 56.7 kg. That's nearly half of the 110 kg consumed 20 years ago. It's uncertain how long the drop in rice prices will go on for, leaving farmers worried ahead of the rice harvest season.