Annual per capita rice consumption hit a fresh low in 2024, dropping to half of what it was 30 years earlier. 
 
According to the 2024 Grain Consumption Survey, released by Statistics Korea on Thursday, average per capita rice consumption last year was 55-point-eight kilograms, a one-point-one percent decrease from a year earlier.

The latest figure is half of the per capita rice consumption in 1994, which stood at 108-point-three kilograms.

Average daily rice consumption per person last year was 152-point-nine grams, roughly one-and-a-half servings of rice.

Nevertheless, the amount of rice used by businesses in food products and beverages, including processed foods, increased to 873-thousand-363 tons, six-point-nine percent more than the previous year.