Wheat self-sufficiency rate falls behind… This year’s production may decrease further

The article highlights a decline in South Korea's wheat self-sufficiency rate, which was expected to increase to 5% by 2025 under the 'Wheat Industry Promotion Act' but has dropped to 1% due to reduced wheat cultivation area and lower production. The decrease in production is attributed to adverse weather conditions and a lack of suitable consumers. Despite efforts to increase domestic production and quality, high costs and competition from imported wheat have led to stagnant domestic consumption. The government plans to address this by increasing public stockpiles but faces challenges with detailed quality control standards reducing the effectiveness for farmers. Experts suggest exploring private sales channels, standardizing quality, and increasing the unit price of direct payments for wheat to enhance farmers' incentives and increase self-sufficiency.

The wheat self-sufficiency rate, which had been on the rise, is now falling. This is because the wheat cultivation area has decreased due to the sharp decline in production last year due to abnormal weather conditions and the lack of suitable consumers. The government set a goal of achieving a ‘5% wheat self-sufficiency rate’ this year, but analysis suggests that the reality will remain in the 1% range. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs enacted the ‘Wheat Industry Promotion Act’ in 2020 and promoted the ‘1st Wheat Industry Promotion Basic Plan (2020-2025)’ with the aim of increasing domestic wheat production to enhance food security. The goal is to create wheat production complexes and expand the consumption system to increase the wheat self-sufficiency rate to 5% by 2025. As a result, wheat production, which was 16,985 tons in 2020, more than tripled to 51,809 tons in 2023 in three years. The self-sufficiency rate also jumped from 0.5% to 2.0% during the same ...