Twenty Thousand Tons of Imported Rice on the Market

Twenty two thousand five hundred seventy-five tons of imported rice such as the American Carlos and the Chinese Hyangmi are expected to be sold to consumers in retail stores next year.

This accounts for 0.58 percent of next year’s predicted rice consumption based on cooked rice standards and exceeds 282,000 80-kilogram bags.

The government’s rice-negotiating committee, prior to the “Rice Negotiations Nationwide Forum” that was to be held at Korea Agricultural and Rural Infrastructure Corporation (KARICO) in Euiwang, Gyeonggi on December 17, revealed provisional rice negotiations between main export countries such as the U.S. and China.

Due to protests by nearly 200 farmers of the Korean Peasants League, who occupied the area, however, the debate was canceled.

According to the negotiating committee, negotiating countries such as the U.S. are demanding that the tariff extension period be prolonged by 10 years from 2005 as a condition for Korea’s low-tariff import quota level of four percent compared to its average annual rice consumption from 1988 to 1990, which increased eight percent.

If this happens, this year’s low-tariff import quota of 205,000 tons will increase 0.4 percent per year, reaching 410,000 tons by 2014. Importing methods will remain in the area of government-run transactions.

Meanwhile, the ratio of rice being sold to consumers will increase proportionately by 30 percent until 2010, beginning with next year’s 10 percent mark of imported rice, and will remain at 30 percent until 2014. In the past, imported rice has been processed for confectionary and noodles and was not sold to consumers as cooked rice.

Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com