With a basic plan to foster the rice processing industry and promote rice consumption, Korea’s agriculture ministry seeks to achieve KRW 17 trillion in the domestic market sales and USD 400 million in export value in terms of processed rice food.
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The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on 23 January a “Third Basic Plan on the Fostering of the Rice Processing Industry and the Promotion of Rice Consumption” to support the rice processing industry on a growth trajectory, as the industry’s sales in the domestic market and its export value have been on a steady increase.
The basic plan aims to expand the sales of processed rice food in the domestic market to KRW17 trillion and more than double the export value to USD 400 million by 2028.
Under this goal, the plan focuses on three major objectives: (1) strengthening the support for the sales and export growth of promising food products, (2) expanding the demand base inside and outside South Korea, and (3) advancing the foundations for the growth of the rice processing industry.
1. The first objective
The ministry will strengthen the support for the sales and export growth of ten major promising food products by taking advantage of four market segment expansion strategies, and thus will drive the dynamic growth of the rice processing industry.
In particular, the ministry will establish a system for stable production and distribution of floury rice, and support R&D of rice food products and expansion of the market segment in multifaceted ways through cooperation with the food and the food service industries.
This way, they will replace 10% (200,000 tonnes) of the domestic demand for imported wheat flour with the demand for floury rice.
2. The second objective
The ministry will enhance the stability of supply and demand of rice by expanding the global market segment of processed rice foods that will help promote a larger consumption of processed rice.
The consumption target to be reached by 2028 is 720,000 tonnes from 570,000 tonnes in 2022.
To this end, they will make efforts in the following ways: increasing the number of KGFC-labeled gluten-free certified companies to 100 by 2028; increasing the number of rice processing companies, certified gluten-free by a gluten-free certification organization in overseas countries, to 30 by 2028; nurturing 200 leading export companies in processed rice food to reach USD 400 million in export value; doubling the size of the 1,000-won breakfast programmes, a policy to provide breakfast for college students at a cheap price of KRW 1,000; and expanding the project of
helping children and young people maintain healthy eating habits.
3. The third objective
The ministry will solidify the foundations for growth of the rice processing industry and thus improve the industry’s global competitiveness.
To make this possible, they will build an area for rice cultivation where floury rice will be cultivated for a processing purpose, and provide support for contract-based rice cultivation.
They will also build an area to grow a Korean variety of indica rice to meet the demand from rising consumption of long-grain rice and an increasing number of
non-Korean residents living in the nation.
Their support will also go to expanding the fund for raw materials purchase and facility renovation and to investing in R&D for ten key techniques and technologies to produce processed rice food. ■