South Korea: Grain and Feed Annual

The Korean government’s policy incentivizing farmers to replace rice acreage with other crops is the driving force behind record low rice planting and production projected in marketing year (MY) 2024/25. On the other hand, MY 2024/25 wheat production, which benefits from the policy, is expected to reach the highest level since 1983. Korea is experiencing severe demographic changes, including the world's lowest fertility rate, which along with western eating habits will perpetuate trends of increased wheat and protein consumption and falling table rice demand. Market share of U.S. corn is on track to rebound in MY 2023/24 to close to 10 percent after it plummeted to 7 percent in MY 2022/23. An exceptionally high infusion of government rice reserves into the feed market in calendar year (CY) 2024 is expected to displace some imports of feed corn and feed wheat, and these two major feedstocks will continue to compete on their relative price spread.