Yoon Administration's First Move to Strengthen Food Security: 'Powdered Rice Flour'

Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Announces Measures to Revitalize Rice Processing Industry Using Broken Rice

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The government plans to supply 200,000 tons of floury rice, a type of rice dedicated to processing, by 2027 to replace 10% of the annual wheat flour demand. By revitalizing the rice processing industry using floury rice flour, the government aims to achieve two goals: strengthening food security and balancing rice supply and demand. The target wheat self-sufficiency rate for 2027 has been raised by 0.9 percentage points from the previous goal to 7.9%.

On the 9th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced the "Measures to Revitalize the Rice Processing Industry Using Floury Rice," which includes these plans. This is the government's first policy related to securing food sovereignty, a key national agenda set by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Through this plan, the Ministry aims to grow the rice processing industry market size from the current 7.3 trillion won to 10 trillion won by 2027 and increase the wheat self-sufficiency rate to 7.9% by reducing dependence on wheat imports. The goal is also to improve the structurally oversupplied rice market, where the decrease in consumption due to changes in dietary habits is faster than the reduction in cultivation area.

Floury rice is a type of rice developed by the Rural Development Administration. Unlike regular rice, which has a tightly packed starch structure requiring wet milling to produce flour, floury rice has a round and loosely arranged starch structure similar to wheat, allowing for dry milling. Minister Jeong Hwang-geun explained that this results in relatively lower milling costs and less starch damage, making it more advantageous for replacing wheat flour than regular rice flour.

If this plan succeeds, floury rice is expected to replace 10% of the annual wheat flour demand (approximately 2 million tons). To establish a stable raw material supply system, the government plans to expand specialized production complexes for floury rice cultivation to 200 locations. Starting next year, a strategic crop direct payment system will be introduced within the public payment scheme to provide incentives to participating farmers, and a double-cropping system of wheat and floury rice will be encouraged to expand floury rice cultivation.

Every year from March to May, contracts for purchasing floury rice will be signed with individual farms, and the government will purchase the floury rice produced during harvest as public stock rice. It will then supply it specially to actual demand companies aiming to replace wheat flour with floury rice. This year, 1 ton of floury rice and rice flour will be provided to food and milling companies such as CJ CheilJedang, Nongshim Milling, and Nonghyup Orion, as well as confectionery and bakery companies, to evaluate milling and processing characteristics by product category within this month. Next year, this will be expanded to about 100 tons.

A "Rice Flour Industry Development Council" (tentative name) involving floury rice producers, consumer groups, milling companies, processing companies, and experts will be operated. From the early stages of floury rice production and utilization, producers, consumers, industry, and government will collaborate to expand the market. Additionally, the government plans to promote food certification systems specialized for rice-processed foods such as gluten-free products and register rice as a functional food ingredient to foster a premium rice processed food market.

Minister Jeong stated, "We will actively use the costs saved from rice supply surplus (market isolation, inventory management, etc.) as investment resources to expand the self-sufficiency base for food such as wheat and soybeans." Regarding concerns that the price competitiveness of rice processed foods using floury rice may be weak, he emphasized, "At least for staple grains that we directly consume, from the perspective of food security, we must bear certain sacrifices and costs and secure them independently."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.