[Reporter’s Notebook] How Much Rice Have You Eaten Lately?

"These days, are you eating your meals well?" A friend I met last Friday evening asked. It was not a routine greeting but a genuine curiosity about "how much rice people actually eat," and he repeated the same question to each person sitting around. Fortunately, everyone had eaten rice. However, three people only ate one to two bowls of rice from Monday to Friday. Only one person, who usually takes good care of their meals, said they ate four meals with rice. The dining place that day was a Chinese restaurant, but no one ordered rice bowls or fried rice.

The recent trend of declining rice sales has become even more pronounced. In the first quarter of this year, the rice sales volume of Nonghyup and private Rice Processing Complexes (RPC) decreased by 40,000 tons (-12.9%) compared to the previous year and by 35,000 tons (-11.4%) compared to the average year. Nonghyup purchases rice produced by farmers and sells it to milling factories and others. Although the reduction in sales volume by Nonghyup and RPC does not necessarily mean the total rice consumption has decreased, it reflects a sharp decline in demand. It also means that the ongoing trend of 'no reversal in rice consumption decline' continues.

Rice consumption has halved over the past 30 years. Last year, per capita rice consumption was 56.4 kg, about half of what it was 30 years ago in 1993 (110.2 kg). The daily per capita consumption is 154.6 g, which is less than one commercially sold instant rice pack (200?210 g). Despite the sharp drop in demand, production has only decreased by 22% over the past 30 years, causing repeated rice price instability due to supply-demand imbalances every year.

The National Assembly is clashing over the amendment to the Grain Management Act, which mandates the government to compulsorily purchase surplus rice, continuing from the 21st to the 22nd National Assembly. The opposition party reintroduced the amendment rejected by the president's veto in April last year and has already proposed related bills in the 22nd National Assembly. The government is also making all-out efforts to block the opposition's amendment. While emphasizing the side effects of compulsory government purchases, the government plans to promote import safety insurance, including rice, to reduce farmers' management risks caused by price declines. In response to the push for the Grain Management Act amendment, the government is focusing on post-measures to stabilize rice prices.

The government has been pursuing measures to reduce supply by decreasing rice cultivation areas through the Strategic Crop Direct Payment System and increasing demand by promoting the processing industry and rice flour industry. These efforts have shown results. In response to the decline in rice prices for the 2023 crop, the government reduced the cultivation area by more than 10,000 hectares beyond the initial target (699,000 ha), equivalent to about 50,000 tons of rice. Through the rice flour support project, rice-processed products such as snacks, bread, ramen, milk, frying powder, and gochujang have been launched or are about to be launched. However, the more the government focuses on post-measures to block the Grain Management Act amendment, the more the momentum for these initiatives is likely to weaken.

It is necessary to establish income and management safety nets for rice farmers to mitigate management risks such as natural disasters and price declines. However, it should not be forgotten that policies to reduce cultivation areas and increase consumption beforehand are more fundamental solutions than simply responding to the consequences of oversupply.