Increasing grain prices and a shortage of corn due to a surge in bioethanol production are significantly impacting on the South Korean feed industry.

According to agriculture to aquaculture specialists Kiotechagil, which manufactures a range of products for the animal feed, grain and aquaculture industries, corn supplies are dwindling and some mills are expecting to run out of wheat in the next few months.

Murray Hyden, chief technical officer at Kiotechagil explained, “South Korea has a strong and growing animal feed industry but this situation has lead to a change in the feed formulations used in Korea. Feed mills are now buying any starch materials that they can, and imports of manioc starch are increasing to make up the deficit.”

South Korea is one of the most important grain-importing nations. In a typical year, the country buys more than 12.5 million tonnes of maize, wheat and other grains. Average annual maize imports of 8.5 million tonnes for feed and industrial use place South Korea in a close race with Mexico for second place worldwide.

“Manioc starch lost popularity in Europe due to slow gelatinisation through pelleting operations,” explained Kiotechagil’s Murray Hyden. “Conditioning times in Korea are very short at 10 – 15 seconds rather than the 60 seconds normally used in the UK. Short conditioning times do not pregelatinise the manioc and as a result pellet quality is falling.”

Murray Hyden suggests the use of a low inclusion binder like Kiotechagil’s MASTERCUBE which will compensate for the slow gelatinisation of manioc starches. It will also reduce the need for double conditioning and double pelleting and can therefore replace expensive and increasing energy costs with an easy to use formulation change.

South Korea has a population of about 48 million with a landmass of 100,000 square kilometres, yet only 20% of this is arable. The country depends on imports for 60-70% its food and feed needs. This has increased from about 50% in 1990 and 40% in 1980.

The feed industry in the country is growing with consumption of corn for livestock feed averaging 6.7 million tonnes over the past 5 years, an increase from under 2 million tonnes in the late 1970s.

Likewise, the production of layer and broiler chickens is expected to increase due to strong demand for poultry products. South Korea currently uses imported chicken meat at restaurants and fast food chains but with the demand for poultry products on the rise, this will lead to a production increase in domestic production of both layer and broiler chickens, which will require efficiency improvements in feedmill operations especially with regards to energy usage. Low inclusion binders like Kiotechagil MASTERCUBE can economically maintain pellet quality when using lower grade starches without increasing energy costs.

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