South Korea's grain prices rose a record 20 percent in the first half of the year, due to a surge in rice prices.

According to Statistics Korea on Sunday, grain prices jumped 19-point-eight percent in the first six months of the year, the largest gain since the country began compiling related data in 1985.

The surge is attributed to the base effect and a sharp increase of 26 percent in rice prices in the first half. Rice prices marked the largest growth since 1981 when they spiked 35 percent.

Last year, rice production decreased by five-point-three percent from a year earlier to three-point-97 million tons, due to a drop in farms cultivating rice and the government's policy to keep rice output at a lower level then previous years.