South Korea wants more rice to be consumed and is subsidizing rice for college students, the cohort least likely to eat breakfast, and is incentivizing food products made from rice flour. Rice production is dropping as population growth has stalled, but rice consumption is dropping even faster. South Korea’s population growth rate is 0.16 percent, but rice consumption is falling by 0.6 percent per year. Instead, wheat consumption is increasing by 0.5 percent per year. The share of rice in ending stocks has risen by 21 percent over the past decade.    

The situation in broader East Asia is not too different. The population is increasing by 0.27 percent per year, and rice consumption is increasing by 0.46 percent. But...

TAGS – Softs, Asia