South Korean rice will be provided as overseas aid for the first time.
 
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Thursday that it will hold a ceremony on Friday at Gwangyang Port in South Jeolla Province to mark the shipment of 750 tons of South Korean rice that will be supplied to Cambodia and Myanmar.
 
The rice will be provided through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve, or APTERR.
 
APTERR is a joint rice reserve system established in March 2013 by South Korea, China, Japan and the ten members of ASEAN to jointly tackle food crises in the region.
 
Two-hundred-50 tons of rice will head toward Cambodia and 500 tons to Myanmar. The rice aid is set to arrive in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and Myanmar’s Port of Yangon between the end of this month and middle of next month. The aid will be handed over through the APTERR Secretariat.
 
The aid marks the first time for South Korea, once a recipient of such aid, to provide rice aid for foreign countries.