SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's rice output kept falling this year amid the lower cultivated area, statistical office data showed Friday.
Rice production totaled 3,585,000 tons in 2024, down 3.2 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
Rice output kept sliding for the third straight year, as it retreated 3.0 percent in 2022 and 1.6 percent in 2023. Rice production continued to decrease for five successive years from 2016 to 2020.
This year's reduction was attributable to the lower cultivated area and the damage by insects and diseases.
The size of rice paddies across the country decreased 1.5 percent over the year to 697,713 hectares in 2024, marking the lowest since relevant data began to be compiled in 1975.
Rice production per 0.1 hectare reduced by 1.8 percent to 514 kg this year.
The country's rice consumption has roughly been on the decline for the past decades due to the change in eating habits. ■