Mountain Rice Price Recovers to 200,000 KRW per 80kg... "Expected to Help Stabilize Rice Farmers' Income"

2023 Harvest Season Local Rice Price is 202,797 Won
8.7%↑ Compared to Last Year's Harvest Season Average

The average farmgate price of newly harvested rice this year has recovered to the 200,000 KRW range per 80kg.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 28th that the average farmgate price of 2023 harvest rice (October to December) was 202,797 KRW per 80kg, an increase of 8.7% compared to the average price during the previous year's harvest period.

An official from the Ministry stated, "At the April meeting between the ruling and opposition parties this year, we promised farmers and the public to implement supply and demand management measures to ensure the harvest rice price reaches around 200,000 KRW. We have been able to keep that promise," adding, "The 2023 harvest rice price is 8.7% higher than last year, which is expected to help stabilize farmers' income."

Despite an expected surplus production of over 200,000 tons for the 2021 rice crop, prices continuously fell from October 2021 due to delayed market isolation measures, dropping to the 160,000 KRW range. In response, the government announced a record-scale government purchase plan of 900,000 tons for the 2022 rice crop as its first harvest season measure since its inauguration, which reversed the rice price from 161,572 KRW in September to 188,580 KRW in October. Continuous supply and demand management through monitoring helped recover prices to the 200,000 KRW range in September this year, supporting the 2023 harvest rice price.

The Ministry shifted its policy direction from the inefficient past reactive market isolation methods to proactive supply and demand management that fundamentally reduces overproduction. To ensure appropriate production of the 2023 rice crop, the Ministry collaborated with local governments and farmers' organizations before transplanting to preemptively reduce rice cultivation area by 19,000 hectares and introduced the Strategic Crop Direct Payment System for the first time this year to institutionalize this effort. Through such proactive supply and demand management, despite an increase in yield per unit area compared to the previous year, the surplus production (95,000 tons) decreased compared to previous years.

Additionally, as farmgate rice prices declined significantly after October, the Ministry promptly gathered opinions from field stakeholders such as Rice Processing Complexes (RPCs) and farmers' organizations, and quickly prepared and announced rice price stabilization measures including the government’s full purchase of 120,000 tons of paddy rice and the purchase of 50,000 tons of stock from the NongHyup for use in food aid.

Alongside this, the purchase price for the 2023 public stockpiled rice was set at 70,120 KRW per 40kg of rice (grade 1 standard), and approximately 1 trillion KRW in purchase payments will be made to farmers participating in the public stockpiling by the end of the year.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to continuously monitor price and stock situations and implement additional measures if necessary to ensure stable rice prices.

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