South Korea must improve the quality of its domestic rice crop to counter growing competition from cheaper imports, the head of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) told Reuters late on Monday.
Under concessions won at the 1995 Uruguay Round of world trade talks, South Korea has an annual rice import quota set at a maximum of 228,031 tonnes this year but a 10-year grace period for quotas expires next year.
This means import, which can be five times cheaper than local rice, will almost certainly rise above a current cap of 4 percent of annual domestic consumption.
"As you have more trade, quality is going to be the one (factor) that dictates how you fare in trade negotiations," IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Rice Science Conference.
"As income levels rise, people demand higher quality rice," he added, referring to more expensive specialty rice's that offer better nutritional benefits.
Latest forecasts indicate South Korea's rice harvest will rise 10 percent this year to 4.9 million tonnes.
Under a World Trade Organisation agreement, Seoul will buy up to 744,000 tonnes of rice from local farmers this year at 161,010 won ($140.6) per 80-kg bag of first-grade milled rice.
Parliament is due to decide later this year whether to approve a government proposal to cut the price paid to farmers by 4 percent.
Since May, Seoul has held inconclusive bilateral talks with the United States, China, Thailand, Australia, Argentina, Egypt, Canada, India and Pakistan on whether to extend the grace period with a bigger quota or switch to a tariff system next year, according to the World Trade Organisation agreement.
Rice exporters want Seoul to raise import quotas, which could see imports double to 8 percent of annual consumption.
Hundreds of thousands of the nation's 4 million farmers have held noisy protests across the country to highlight their fears of price cuts and any relaxation of protectionist rules.
To counter the import threat, Cantrell said South Korea should bring together producers and consumers to ensure rice quality, reduce production costs through more efficient use of water and nutrients, and plant new rice varieties.
He also noted farmers were getting older, and rice growing had to be made more profitable, through higher quality rises, to keep people on the land. Rice-growing techniques had to be modernised, he said, adding that his organisation had provided training for farmers in impoverished North Korea, where he said rice farming faced serious problems.
In addition, he said urbanisation, industrialisation and population growth in Asia were putting increased pressure on water resources, making it critical to develop rice that uses water more efficiently.
"Rice is one of the major users of fresh water in agriculture," he said, noting farming uses 80 percent of fresh water in Asia, with rice accounting for half of that. "We have to be able to develop management systems and varieties of rice's that will be more efficient users of water."
The IRRI is a non-profit agricultural research and training body headquartered in the Philippines and with offices in more than 10 other nations.
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