South Korea's Average Wheat Import Price Per Tonne Exceeds $400 in March

SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) - South Korea imported 429,000 tons of wheat and mixed wheat (HS code 1001) in March, with an import value of 172.45 million U.S. dollars, according to the Korea Customs Service (Customs) and the food industry on April 20. The average import price per tonne was US$402, a jump of 8.8% from the previous year, exceeding US$400 again after 13 years and three months following the 2008 financial crisis. 

Import prices per tonne rose 41.4% year-on-year and 54.3% compared to March 2020, when the New Crown outbreak first began. The situation in Russia and Ukraine and higher sea freight rates drove wheat prices up significantly. South Korea mainly imports wheat for feeding from Russia and Ukraine, with edible wheat imported from the US, Canada and Australia, but the overall Russian-Ukrainian war pushed up international grain prices and edible wheat prices. By importing countries, South Korea imported 165,000 tons of wheat from the United States in March, with an import value of $78.48 million and an import price of $475 per tonne, Canada imported at $452 per tonne and Australia at $360. 

Imported wheat prices will be transmitted to wheat-based food and feed prices, increasing the upward pressure on prices in South Korea. According to the price information platform "True Price" of the Korea Consumer Institute, the average price of cut noodles in Seoul in March was 8,113 won per bowl (about 41.8 yuan), up 8.7% year-on-year. This was the first time that the price of cut noodles in Seoul exceeded 8,000 won. The average price of cold noodles in Seoul was 9,962 won per bowl, up 9.7 per cent year-on-year, while the price of fried noodles was 5,846 won, up 9.4 per cent year-on-year. 

It is observed that wheat import prices will continue to climb for some time to come due to the prolonged war in Ukraine and bottlenecks in the international supply chain.