Food security on alert

Rice powder, ‘strategic’ grain production must be boosted

The World Food Summit in 1996 first defined food security as basic access to an adequate amount of food needed for an active and healthy life. Concern Worldwide U.S., a global charity advocacy NGO, describes on its website: “Food security is a basic human right. However, for hundreds of millions of people, this right is not being met.”

The significance of food security has been a continuously growing issue amid intensifying geopolitical uncertainties gripping the world, thus closely correlated with national security. However, prospects for global food security are becoming ever gloomier due chiefly to the spawning of regional wars and natural disasters amid increasingly serious catastrophic climate crises. The Russia-Ukraine war has largely been a testament to this, causing massive disruption in global supply channels of major resources, in particular grain and energy.

This has also intensified inflationary pressures and led to high interest rates across the globe. Warring nations are tempted to take advantage of the food problem, securing theirs first while preventing the opposite sides from acquiring it.

It is worrying that Korea ranked the lowest among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2022 on the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). According to the staterun Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), Korea posted 70.2 points in the index, down from 77.8 points in 2012. Korea came in 39th among 105 countries, down 18 places over 10 years. Korea’s grain self-sufficiency rate stood at only 20 percent, showing its heavy reliance on imports.

Against this backdrop, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration unveiled an ambitious plan last Tuesday designed to bolster the nation’s food security, and raise the production of “strategic items” such as rice powder and grains other than rice. It plans to nurture the domestic rice processing industry, based on the production of rice powder, to 17 trillion won ($12.7 billion) by 2028. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs also said it would nurture more than 200 export companies of related products to increase Korea’s overseas sales to $400 million.

The domestic market of processed rice goods saw a phenomenal growth of 33.3 percent and the exports doubled during the 20182022 period. The government is poised to gear up efforts to further expand the market. Now it needs a firmer willingness to carry out the pledges practically and without fail.

The ministry came up with 10 promising items to boost as convenient processed foods: gimbap (seaweed-wrapped rice), dosirak (boxed meals), tteokbokki (stirfried sliced rice cakes), rice beverages and rice confectionery, all riding on the growing overseas popularity of K-food alongside K-pop, K-drama and K-contents.

Frozen gimbap is said to be attracting more consumers in many U.S. supermarkets while popular K-food items are expanding their presence, from kimchi to tteokbokki. Given this, it is natural for the government to facilitate their bids to enhance marketing activities.

Above all, expectations have been growing for the stable production and distribution of rice powder. Rice powder is a newly developed item for processed food products. It is cultivated in a similar manner to ordinary rice and acts as a flour replacement. The Rural Development Administration (RDA) managed to develop the product after 10 years of research. Yet due mainly to lack of policy backup, the item has failed to draw public attention. We hope the government’s plans to join hands with related enterprises to develop new products and expand marketing channels will bear fruit.

The administration is seeking to replace at least 10 percent of imported wheat (200,000 tons) with rice powder, to help promote grain self-sufficiency, which is now at the lowest level of 20 percent.

An average of 200,000 tons of rice are oversupplied per year. Yet the self-sufficiency rate of other grains remains at single digits — 5 percent for corn, and less than 1 percent for wheat.

Amid the rapid “Westernization” of the people’s appetite, the demand for wheat has continued to increase. Yet most flour consumption depends on imports. Due to the urgent need for alternative grains to replace wheat, rice powder can be an effective option. While decreasing the imports of wheat, we should increase the production of rice replacer, which will help enhance food security.

Comprehensive supportive measures should be extended to farmers so that they can grow grains other than rice. It is improper for the government to stick to the “obligatory” purchase of rice from farmers for the sake of stabilizing rice prices. It is high time for innovative ways of thinking to ensure sustainable growth of the agriculture industry and guarantee food security, which is critical for the survival of humankind.