The island is now in barley harvest season. This year’s predicted yields of the grain are higher than normal years.
High yield is good news to growers. But if yields are too high, it’s a different story.
Todd Thacker reports.

Barley is being harvested across a golden field.
The grain is collected and loaded onto trucks.
This year, yields of the crop are expected to be higher than normal.
However, farmers are worried.


9,200 tons of barley are expected to be produced this season. This will far exceed the contracted volume of 7,200 tons arranged with the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF).


More farmers chose barley as their crop this year, which means the grain’s cultivation area has increased. Conditions for crop growth have also been favorable.

Now, overproduction is a problem.


More than 90 percent of Jeju barley is shipped to factories that make alcoholic beverages.
But these manufacturing plants already have grain stocks to last for the next three years.


A request by the NACF for the Korea Alcohol and Liquor Industry Association to purchase additional amounts of the crop has been rejected.

Now, the federation is reviewing shipping the crop to feed manufacturers or the grain market for human consumption.



Since the purchase price of Jeju barley at feed manufacturers is a whopping 80 percent less than at alcoholic beverage plants, barley growers and the NACF are facing.significant losses in 2020.

Todd Thacker, KCTV