Strong corn demand in South Korea and corn export growth in Brazil

Lead: Singapore, July 11 (Reuters) - Brazil's share of corn in the South Korean market is growing rapidly So far, South Korean Importers still avoid purchasing American corn, because unapproved genetically modified corn was found in U.S shipments to South Korea two years ago On Thursday, industry insiders said Brazil could increase its share of the South Korean market by about 50% in 2002, mainly reflected in corn for human consumption Local traders in Singapore say it has been nearly two years since the incident, and American corn is trying to recover the lost market in South Korea South Korea's imports of corn for human consumption from Brazil jumped to 783728 tons from 68552 tons in the same period last year from January to may, according to the kotis on Wednesday In 2001, South Korea imported 824691 tons of edible corn from Brazil South Korea imported 143073 tons of feed corn from Brazil from January to may, compared with zero in the same period last year Another Singaporean businessman said he would not be surprised if Brazil exported 1.1-1.2 million tons of non GMO corn to South Korea in 2002 The discovery of Starlink corn led to the cancellation of food sales nationwide in the United States, and affected exports to Japan and South Korea As the price of corn fell, farmers filed a series of collective lawsuits In the United States, Starlink is licensed for livestock feed, but not for human consumption because of concerns about allergies [South Korea only imports edible corn from Brazil and China.] a businessman said that South Korean Importers try to limit edible corn to Brazil and China They will never forget the Starlink incident On Wednesday, the Korean Corn Processing Industry Association (kocopia) bid for 55000 tons of non genetically modified corn for human consumption The proposal states that in the case of corn grown in the United States, the proposal should be accompanied by official non Starlink certificates and samples Traders said that between Brazil and China, South Korean Importers prefer to import Brazilian edible corn, and South Korea is willing to pay US $3-4 more per ton for corn produced in South America One trader said that only when the price gap is more than $3-4, can importers turn to China At this time, either China's shipping prices are reduced or Brazil's shipping prices are increased Another businessman said that due to the different quality of each shipment in China, South Korean Importers prefer Brazilian edible corn At the end of April, kocopia imported a batch of edible corn from the United States in June, which was the first batch of corn imported from the United States since the Starlink event in September 2000 According to kotis, South Korea imported only 6565 tons of us edible corn from January to may, compared with 579793 tons in the same period of last year Grain traders say Argentina may also be increasing its market share in edible corn in 2002, but progress has been minimal But Argentina has made great progress in the feed corn market, with US market share squeezed out, said one trader.