Today's Date:  Tuesday, August 21, 2012

1. ECONOMIC ISSUES

<8/15/2012> Will rising grain prices hamper the Korean economy?

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2012081659188

Summary: International grain prices have been going through the roof since June. At the end of last month, corn was traded at 323 U.S. dollars per ton and beans at 634 dollars, exceeding their prices in 2008, when riots broke out in Brazil and Mexico due to a grain crisis. Wheat prices surged to 337 dollars per ton, up 35 percent from a year earlier, as the U.S., the world’s largest grain producer, suffered its worst drought in 50 years. Higher prices caused by inflation in agricultural products are called “agflation,” a combination of the terms “agriculture” and “inflation.”

2. NORTH KOREA ISSUES

N. Korea Stands to Lose over 700,000 Tons of Harvest This Year: Research

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=135549&code=Ne2&category=2

Full text : North Korean farmers look set to lose well over 700-thousand tons of crops by the end of this year.  The Seoul-based Korea Rural Economic Institute says the severe drought that occurred between May and June is expected to cost an annual loss of over 200-thousand tons of wheat and barley and 400-thousand tons of corn, potatoes, beans and rice.  Previously, the World Food Programme and the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization estimated North Korea would lose 740-thousand tons of crops this year.

3. MIFAFF PRESS RELEASES

$680 million worth of agricultural, forestry and fisheries food exports in July

Summary: The agricultural, forestry and fisheries food exports in July amounted to $680 million, a 6.8% increase over the same period last year. The cumulative export amount from January to July was $4.4 billion, an increase of 5.7% over the same period last year.