The purpose of this study is to expand and systemize statistical indexes to find the status of Korean agriculture in the world stage. In order to systemize international agricultural statistics, we classified them into 5 categories, which are aggregate index, production factor index, production index, trade index, and consumption and price index. According to this study, Korea's position in world agriculture is as follows.
The agricultural GDP of Korea in 2007 was 27.1 billion U.S. dollars. It has increased continuously since 2001. However, the share of agriculture in total GDP declined by 2.9% in 2007 compared to 10 years ago(5.4%). Moreover, the share of agricultural budget to total budget decreased from 6.2% in 2008 to 5.9% in 2009. In the case of agricultural subsidies, the share decreased to 5.6% in 2009 from 6.0% in 2008, which is lower than those of the United States(9.0%) and Japan(8.1%).
The world's farm population was 26.1 hundred million in 2007, and Korea's farm population was 3.27 million. During the previous 10 years, Korea's farm population fell by 26.7%. In the meantime, the world's cultivated area in 2007 was 1,554 million ha, an increase of 2.1% from 1997. During the ten-year period, Korea's cultivated land dropped by 140,000 ha to 1.78 million ha, or 17.9% of total land. The cultivated land per farmer rose by 26.4% to 0.54 ha, which is similar to the world average of 0.59 ha. The total cultivated land for organic farming was 12,033 ha in 2008, or 0.65% of total cultivated land.
In terms of supply by product, world rice production in 2008 was 690 million tons, and 59% of the total supply amount was produced in China and Indonesia. In Korea, 5.96 million tons of rice were produced in 2007, which was the lowest in the past 10 years. In 2008, rice production rose to 6.47 million tons(0.9%, 15th rank). In the case of pepper, the supply amount in 2008 fell to 386,000 tons(1.4% of world production, 9th rank), a 6.8% decrease from the previous year. Garlic, however, saw an increase of 7.8% to 375,000 tons(2.3% of world production, 3rd rank), which is the third largest after China and India. As for apples, production increased by 8.0% to 470,000 tons(0.7% of world production, 25th), and the supply has been increasing since 2004. As for pears, 470,000 tons were produced, which is about the same level as the previous year(2.2% of world production, 6th rank). In the case of livestock products, beef production stood at 250,000 tons in 2008 and it is on an increasing trend. There was no big change in the production of pork, which amounted to 830,000 tons(0.8% of world production, 19th rank).
The world export amount of agricultural and livestock products in 2007 was 876.4 billion dollars. It increased by 21.4% from the previous year. The United States(10.6%) was the largest exporter of agricultural and livestock products, followed by the Netherlands(7.7%), France(6.7%) and Germany(6.6%). Korea's agricultural exports increased 9.6% to 2.6 billion dollars, and its major export markets are the U.S.(12.3%), China(11.0%) and Russia(9.7%). The world's agricultural and livestock imports posted 903.4 billion dollars, an increase of 21.0% from the previous year. The U.S. share of world agricultural imports is 8.3%, which is larger than Germany(7.8%), the U.K.(5.9%), and China(5.3%). Meanwhile, Korea's agricultural imports increased to 14.9 billion dollars, a 20.2% increase from the previous year. The United States(24.6%), China(18.6%) and Australia are the largest exporters of agricultural and livestock products to Korea.
In terms of quantity of food supply among consumer-related indexes, the two largest suppliers of rice in 2007 were China(29.4%) and India(23.7%). Their supply amount of 522.6 million tons of rice accounted for more than a half of world production. Meanwhile, Korea supplied 5.46 million tons(1.0%) of rice, and Japan accounted for 2.1% of world supply. The world supplied 60.09 million tons of apples. China, the largest supplier of apples, supplied 18.38 million tons(30.6%) and Korea supplied 446,000 tons, or 0.7% of world supply. As for grapes, the world supplied 25.54 million tons. China and the U.S. were the largest suppliers with 4.7 million tons(18.4%) and 2.62 million tons(10.3%), respectively. Korea supplied 360,000 tons(1.4%). In the case of beef, the world supplied 63.11 million tons of beef. Of this, the U.S. accounted for 12.73 million tons(20.2%), whereas Korea accounted for 540,000 tons(0.9%). As for pork, 99.08 million tons were supplied globally, and China took up the largest share(44.02 million tons, 44.4%). Pork production in Korea has steadily increased to 1.49 million tons, or 1.5% of world supply.
In terms of producer price, rice price in Korea is the second highest(1,631 dollars/ton) among major countries after Japan(2,087 dollars/ton). In the case of soybean, Korea's producer price is the highest at 2,008 dollars per ton. As for apple, Korea's producer price is the second highest(1,073 dollars/ton) after Japan(1,985 dollars/ton). As for pear, Korea's producer price is 579 dollars per ton, which is the 8th cheapest among major countries. As for beef, the producer price is the second highest in Korea(14,051 dollars/ton) after Japan (20,845 dollars/ton). The Korean producer price of pork is the fourth highest after Japan, Russia and China. In terms of consumer price, the Korean rice price was the 12th highest among OECD countries in 2008. As for tomato, the Korean consumer price was the 15th highest at 3.26 dollars/kg. The Korean consumer price of apple was the 7th highest at 3.34 dollars/kg. In the case of beef, the Korean consumer price was 57.48 dollars/kg, which is the second highest after Japan(87.34 dollars/kg).



Researchers: Kyung Phil Kim, Do Hwan Jang
Research period: 2010. 6. - 2010. 11.
E-mail address: kkphil@krei.re.kr, zzangdh@krei.re.kr