* South Korea's rice consumption at record low last year
* Flour demand last year at 33.6 kg per capita, highest
since 2006
* Trend similar across Asia as consumers eat more bread
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By Meeyoung Cho and Rebecca Jang
SEOUL, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Asia is losing some of its
appetite for rice in favour of wheat, a trend that is nowhere
more pronounced than South Korea where bread and pastries have
become a new staple.
From working mothers, who find toast more convenient to
prepare for breakfast, to city dwellers flocking to new eateries
for baguettes, South Koreans are at the forefront of an
Asia-wide trend that has seen wheat demand climb at nearly twice
the rate of rice consumption since 2008.
And while Asia is largely self sufficient in rice, demand
for bread and noodles from Mumbai to Manila has made Asia the
largest and fastest growing market for wheat imports, shipping
in more than 40 million tonnes annually for the past five years
or 25 percent of world imports.
"I eat bread with coffee almost every morning," said Lee
Seung-Hee, a 47-year-old working mother of two, who often gives
her children bread as a snack between meals.
"My husband likes to have rice meals, so I try to cook rice
for him. But when I'm too busy, I just give him bread."
South Koreans spent an estimated 6.36 trillion won ($5.37
billion) last year on bread, sandwiches, bagels and pastries,
according to SPC Group, owner of the Paris Croissant and Paris
Baguette chains, which has even opened two stores in the French
capital Paris as part of global expansion.
Meanwhile, South Korea's rice consumption hit a record low
of 65.1 kg per person last year, while flour consumption was the
highest since 2006 at 33.6 kg, according to industry and
official data.
"Housewives are increasingly having bread and coffee for
brunch late morning instead of rice and kimchi," said Kang
Byung-Oh, a business professor at Chung-Ang University,
referring to the spicy local side dish.
SPC Group, which runs Asia's biggest bread making plant and
has about 5,000 bakeries in South Korea, said the local bread
market has grown at an average of 15 percent per year since
2005.
"You can find this trend across Asia, as Asian countries
become westernized...Food products from wheat flour are quick,
convenient," said Koh Hee-Jong, an agriculture and life science
professor at Seoul National University.
NOODLES
Rising wheat consumption has been focused on large cities
where an emerging middle class is exposed to a proliferation of
convenience foods from pizzas to sandwiches.
In Indonesia, noodle consumption has helped increase wheat
demand in the world's second-biggest importer by more than 60
percent since 2005 to nearly 8 million tonnes annually.
Even in India, the world's second-largest wheat grower,
consumption is projected to surpass output by more than 5
million tonnes this year, sparking the largest imports in eight
years.
Indian wheat demand is especially strong in the Northern
Plains where it is grown, but is rising in the south where naan
bread and chapattis vie with traditional rice consumption.
Bangladesh is expected to import around 3 million tonnes of
wheat a year to help meet 4 million tonnes of local demand.
"We used to take rice three times a day. Now we are taking
rice only once a day," said Humayra Ahmed, a bank employee and
mother of two children in Dhaka.
China has also seen wheat demand soar and consumed a record
118 million tonnes in 2014.
Along with record pizza sales and noodle consumption, demand
for cakes and pastries is also increasing.
"It's a symbol of lifestyle, consumers pair them (cakes and
pastries) with coffee and chatting, and hanging out with
friends," said Linda Li, senior research analyst at Mintel
China.
PRODUCERS
With wheat production relatively low in some countries in
Asia - South Korea only produces about 1-2 percent of its
consumption - there is little alternative but to import more.
Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, the United States and
Europe have been the chief beneficiaries of Asian wheat demand,
seeing collective exports swell by over 40 percent since 2005.
But the relentless climb in wheat consumption does place a
strain on exporters in places such as Australia to keep up.
"When you look at wheat consumption, it is to a very large
degree driven by general increase in consumption as well as swap
out of rice and other staples," said Ole Houe, an analyst at
brokerage IKON Commodities in Sydney. "We need to produce a
record crop every year just to meet the demand."
($1 = 1,183.7000 won)