April 21, 2009

South Korea reduced corn imports 50 percent on-year to 1.24 million tonnes in the first quarter of this year, industry data showed.

Corn imports for feed production, which account for about 80 percent of the total, dropped 52 percent to 989,986 tonnes, according to data from the Korea International Trade Association.

South Korea imported 379,184 tonnes of feed corn from Brazil in the first quarter, a turnaround from zero Brazilian imports in the same period last year. On the other hand, South Korea imported only 99 tonnes of feed corn India during the first quarter, down sharply from 237,437 tonnes in the same period last year.

The US is still the largest corn supplier to South Korea, shipping 607,701 tonnes. But the volume was a far cry from the 1.8 million tonnes shipped in the first quarter of 2008.