South Korea: Grain and Feed Update

The Korean government revised its marketing year (MY) 2024/25 rice production estimate down to reflect a 2-percent yield reduction from extreme heat, untimely rains, and pest damage. Amid political pressure from farm groups to counteract declining farmgate rice prices, the government announced its long-term rice reformation plan measures in December 2024 to address the nation’s chronic oversupply of rice. The plan includes policies to reduce rice acreage by substituting to other crops, as well as facilitating consumption and exports, including a 50 percent increase in food aid donations. The Korea Agro-Fisheries and Trade Corporation (aT) filled all WTO rice import quotas by the end of 2024. As of January 2025, aT had resumed table rice auctions of rice imported from Vietnam and Thailand, but not from the United States.