March 13, 2012

South Korea's soy consumption to remain stable in MY 2012/13

For the marketing year 2012/13, South Korea's soy consumption is forecast to remain steady at 1.3 million tonnes, of which 920,000 tonnes will go for crushing and 370,000 tonnes for food processing.

MY 2012/13 soy meal consumption is projected to expand 50,000 tonnes to 2.35 million tonnes as the local hog industry recovers from the effects from the earlier Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks.

Imports of US soy meal are expected to double during this period to 200,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, soyoil consumption in MY 2012/13 is forecast to grow 9% to 500,000 tonnes because of rising biodiesel demand.

Soy accounts for the majority of oilseed consumption. Consumption in MY 2012/13 is forecast to remain unchanged from the current marketing year at 1.3 million tonnes, of which 920,000 tonnes will go for crushing and 370,000 tonnes for food processing use in items like tofu, soymilk and soy sauce.

Future growth in overall soy consumption is expected to be minimal given the maturity of the crushing and soy processing industries.

Rapeseed meal consumption for MY 2012/13 is forecast to stay around 300,000 tonnes. MY2011/12 consumption is expected to increase 15,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes as the livestock industry continues to recover from FMD.

Sizeable volumes of imported copra and palm kernel meals are also used in compound feed production depending on the size of import volume.