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The price of imported wheat is soaring due to the prolonged crisis in Ukraine.

The unit price of wheat for milling increased by a whopping 42% last month compared to the same month last year, and it was also predicted that the unit price index of grain imports would rise by more than 10% from the previous quarter.

Research on alternative crops is being conducted in Korea to reduce dependence on wheat imports, and domestic rice varieties that are easy to process like wheat are attracting attention.



Correspondent Lee Yong-shik.



<Reporter> This



is a rice field in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do.



Rice planting is in full swing at the place where wheat has been harvested.



'Bunjilmi', a powdered rice for processing, is a new variety developed and patented by the Rural Development Administration three years ago.



[Lee Seung-taek/Farmer: You can harvest wheat slowly, and there are fewer pests and diseases (compared to normal rice).]



Above all, the advantage is that you can harvest barley and wheat and plant the seedlings until early this month.



This year, the scale of cultivation of Bunjil rice is 100ha at 8 farms.



Compared to last year, when cultivation began in earnest, the number of farms increased by two and the area four times.



Bunjil rice grown in this way is used as a raw material for bread, sweets, and beer.



Bread is made like wheat flour by adding powdered milk, salt, and makgeolli to rice flour, kneading it, and then baking it.



[Choi Ji-won/Citizen: It is chewy and the texture is much softer when eaten torn, and the stomach is comfortable.]



The powdered rice produced last year weighs 115 tons, all of which are purchased from 6 processing companies, and are used immediately without soaking in water.



[Dongsoo Hong/President of Bakery: (General rice) requires a lot of processing cost in the process of soaking, drying, or grinding.]



The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to produce 200,000 tons of powdered rice by the next 27 years. It accounts for about 10% of the annual wheat flour demand of 2 million tons.



This will raise the domestic wheat self-sufficiency rate from only 0.8% to 7.9%.



[Jeong Hwang-geun/Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: We will sign a contract to purchase powdered rice with farmers between March and May every year.]



It is noteworthy whether Bunjil rice can catch two rabbits that reduce dependence on imported wheat and relieve rice oversupply.



(Video coverage: Choi Ho-jun and Kim Min-cheol, screen provided: Rural Development Administration)