South Korea: Grain and Feed Update
This report is an update to the previous forecast. Notable changes for MY 2015/16 include an increase in Korean wheat production to 36,000 MT and increased wheat consumption to 3.85 million tons. For corn, domestic production was increased to 82,008 MT in MY2014. The Minimum Market Access agreement (MMA) requires that Korea purchase 408,700 MT of milled rice from Most Favored Nation (MFN) countries at the duty level of 5 percent under the tariff rate quota (TRQ) regime. As of July 8, the aT has purchased 305,027 metric tons of brown rice for processing purposes, equivalent to 274,524 metric tons (milled), about 67 percent of the entire 2015 TRQ import commitment. The United States has sold 102,352 metric tons of medium grain brown rice (or 92,117 metric tons, milled), 23 percent of the 2015 TRQ. The Korean government is expected to continue purchases of the remaining 134,176 metric tons (milled) within calendar year 2015.