SEOUL-Rice consumption among South Koreans kept on falling from the last year, despite a rising popularity for ready-to-eat meals using rice, a government report showed on Monday. Rice consumption per capita dropped 1.3 percent in the business year 2018, which was from November 2017 to October 2018, to 61 kg from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. The per-capita consumption of rice, one of the country's staple food, continued to fall since 1970 when it reached 136.4 kg. The falling rice consumption was offset by demand for rice-used products. Manufacturers used 755,664 tons of rice as ingredient for food products in 2018, up 6.8 percent from a year earlier.
The rice use by manufacturers kept rising for the fifth consecutive year. Demand for ready-to-eat meals using rice jumped 29 percent over the year to 147,474 tons last year.
Amid the rising number of one-person households, demand increased for the ready-to-eat meals sold in convenient stores.