SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — Asia is losing some of its appetite for rice in favour of wheat, a trend that is nowhere more pronounced than in South Korea, where bread and pastries have become a new staple.
From working mothers who find toast more convenient to prepare for breakfast to city dwellers flocking to new eateries for baguettes, South Koreans are at the forefront of an Asia-wide trend that has seen wheat demand climb at nearly twice the rate of rice consumption since 2008.
And while Asia is largely self sufficient in rice, demand for bread and noodles from Mumbai to Manila has made Asia the largest and fastest growing market for wheat imports, shipping in more than 40 million tonnes annually for the past five years, or 25 percent of world imports.
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“I eat bread with coffee almost every morning,” said Lee Seung-Hee, a 47-year-old working mother of two, who often gives her children bread as a snack between meals.
“My husband likes to have rice meals, so I try to cook rice for him. But when I’m too busy, I just give him bread.”
South Koreans spent an estimated US$5.37 billion last year on bread, sandwiches, bagels and pastries, according to SPC Group, owner of the Paris Croissant and Paris Baguette chains, which has even opened two stores in Paris as part of global expansion.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s rice consumption hit a record low of 65.1 kilograms per person last year, while flour consumption was the highest since 2006 at 33.6 kg, according to official data.
“Housewives are increasingly having bread and coffee for brunch late morning instead of rice and kimchi,” said Kang Byung-Oh, a business professor at Chung-Ang University, referring to the spicy local side dish.
SPC Group, which runs Asia’s biggest bread making plant and has about 5,000 bakeries in South Korea, said the local bread market has grown at an average of 15 percent per year since 2005.
“You can find this trend across Asia as Asian countries become westernized,” said Koh Hee-Jong, an agriculture and life science professor at Seoul National University.
“Food products from wheat flour are quick, convenient.”
Rising wheat consumption has been focused on large cities, where an emerging middle class is ex-posed to a proliferation of convenience foods from pizzas to sandwiches.
China has also seen wheat de-mand soar and consumed a record 118 million tonnes in 2014.
“It’s a symbol of lifestyle. Consumers pair them (cakes and pastries) with coffee and chatting, and hanging out with friends,” said Linda Li, senior research analyst at Mintel China.
Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, the United States and Europe have been the chief beneficiaries of Asian wheat demand, seeing collective exports swell by more than 40 percent since 2005.
But the relentless climb in wheat consumption does place a strain on exporters to keep up.
“We need to produce a record crop every year just to meet the demand,” said Ole Houe, an analyst at brokerage IKON Commodities in Australia.
