South Korea: Grain and Feed Update
In Marketing Year (MY) 2018/19, heavy rains during the planting season caused farmers to opt out of the government program to reduce rice acreage and continue planting rice. FAS/Seoul therefore has increased the rice production estimate to 3.88 million metric tons (MMT). Rice consumption estimates are revised upward to 4.67 MMT, reflecting an increasing use of rice for animal feed. Meanwhile, wheat consumption and imports are revised down slightly to 3.9 MMT and 4.1 MMT respectively, reflecting higher global prices for wheat. The MY 2018/19 forecast for corn consumption is unchanged at 10.4 MMT, with about half (49 percent) of imports deriving from the United States (5 MMT).
