South Korea Replacing Some Corn Imports with other Grains

South Korea, which is the third-largest importer of corn, said it'll probably cut corn imports and replace them with less expensive grains like wheat.

As a result, this year's corn imports from the U.S. could fall by up to 1 million tons from last year's levels.

"Overall corn imports for feed use in 2009 will be similar to this year's level at best and are more likely to fall below the level as feed makers switch to cheaper wheat products," Min Byong-ryol, who represents South Korea for the U.S. Grains Council.
In 2007, South Korea imported 6.7 million tons of corn for feed over the first 10 months of the year. So far in 2008 they've acquired 6.5 million tons of feed corn in the first 10 months.

Min added feed corn purchases should be around 8 million tons overall, with the U.S. accounting for 7.5 million by the end of the year.

Corn used for food will also drop significantly, as less expensive sweeteners like sugar are used by food processors. Corn used for food is under 20 percent of South Korea's total corn imports.

So far this year corn imports for food are down by 19 percent over the first 10 months of the year, coming in at 1.25 million tons.

With fertilizer costs more than doubling from four years ago, it's projected that next year corn acreage planting should drop from 94 million to 86 million. Much of that will be planted in soybeans, which require far less fertilizer input than corn.