Lee orders measures to boost rice consumption

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak on Monday instructed his
aides to map out fundamental measures to stabilize the domestic rice price by
increasing the consumption of the staple food for Koreans.

"We must fundamentally address a miserable situation in which local farmers are
not delighted at a good rice harvest" because of falling prices, the president
said in a meeting with his top secretaries, according to his spokesman Park
Sun-kyoo.
The president said a new way of thinking was needed, noting that the government's
annual purchase to keep prices up has repeatedly proven useless, the spokesman
told a press briefing.
Lee suggested such measures could include increasing the production and
consumption of traditional rice liquor or noodles to replace those made from
flour.
Domestic rice prices have steadily decreased over the past two decades along with
a steady decrease in consumption that fell below 80 kilograms per person last
year for first time since the early 1990s, when every South Korean consumed
nearly 120 kilograms of rice every year.
"There will certainly be a way that will benefit both the government and the
farmer if we are not bound to conventional ways and find a new way to address the
problem through a bold, inventive change of thinking," the president told the
meeting, according to his spokesman.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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