Korea's Food Self-Sufficiency Rate in Crisis: Can Reality Keep Up with Targets?

Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is facing a dilemma in setting a new food self-sufficiency target. The ministry must decide on the target by the end of the year, but reality does not seem to follow their goals.

The current target is to achieve a 55.4% self-sufficiency rate, but it has consistently fallen short. In 2022, the actual rate was 49.4%, and in 2017, it was 48.7%. The ministry acknowledges that there are several challenges to increasing domestic production.

Wheat and corn, key items in the food self-sufficiency rate, are heavily reliant on imports due to their suitability as raw materials for processed foods and feed, respectively. Domestic products lack price competitiveness, limiting the ability to increase production. As a result, the self-sufficiency rates for these crops have shown almost no change between 2014 and 2024.

The ministry also faces issues with farmland area, which has been shrinking over the years. In 2021, the farmland area was 1,556,716 hectares, but it decreased to 1,499,911 hectares in 2025. The National Assembly Research Service noted that farmland area is a critical variable for a feasible food self-sufficiency target.

A person in the agricultural sector said, 'From the perspective of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, it wants to raise the self-sufficiency target, but reality does not follow, creating a dilemma.'