Prospect of Soybean Production, Consumption and Supply in Korea

콩 생산 수급전망과 대책

The yearly consumption of soybean ranged from 1.5 to 1.7 million tons in Korea during 1995-1997 with an increasing trend of annual consumption by 60,000 tons. Gross consumption of soybean was 1.74 million tons in 1997: 1.292 million tons for feed, 0.433 million tons for food and its processing, and 15,000 tons for seed and other uses. Particularly, Korea totally depends upon imports of soybean for feed and oil. Only about $40{\%}$ of soybeans used for food and its processing are supplied through domestic production. Korean markets will be open to foreign agricultural products except for rice in 2004 when the Uruguay Round treaty is completed. According to the Korean Rural Economics Institutes reports, soybean consumption in 2004 is expected to be 1.87 million tons that is higher than that in 1997 by 0.13 million tons. In order to meet the need for soybean, Korean government planned to supply from 0.17 million tons of domestic production plus 1.7 million tons of imports, and also planned to raise the self-supply rate of $9.1{\%}$ in 2004 from $8.6{\%}$ in 1997. According to the USDA reports on international soybean production and consumption, its production is expected to be 150 million tons over the world and the international market prices for soybean will be unstable in 2004. Based on these reports, international soybean trade capacity will be 36 million tons in 2004 that is lower than 39 million tons (accounting for $25{\%}$ of gross production) in 1597. Also, a term-end stock in 2004 is estimated to be 9.6 million tons that is low as compared to 18.6 million tons In 1997, In coping with domestic and international soybean production, consumption and supply, and further possible food crisis, national policies and continuous efforts are necessarily required to promote domestic production and to reduce imports of soybean.