South Korea to release 50,000 tonnes of rice to check price hike

South Korea, which is trying to curb rising inflation, said on Thursday it would release 50,000 tonnes of rice produced last year via public sales on March 31 to curb recent price rises. The agriculture ministry also said in a statement that it would decide when it would release another 100,000 tonnes of rice, which was produced last year and kept in the government's inventory as surplus.
"Rice prices at production sites have jumped recently, which is something was not seen lately," the statement said, adding that rice prices did not usually rise strongly at this time of year. The statement noted the average price of 80 kilogrammes of rice at production sites had risen 1.5 percent in the 10 days to March 15, to 149,124 won ($133). That is the highest since a 1.7 1.7-percent rise seen to August 25 of 2006. Separately a local economic daily Maeil Business newspaper quoted the agriculture ministry as saying the world's fourth-largest grains importer was considering reducing rice fields by 16 percent through 2015.