ID :
531904
Fri, 05/10/2019 - 02:52
Auther :

S. Korea to send rice aid to Mideast, Africa

SEJONG, May 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will provide 50,000 tons of rice to four nations in the Middle East and Africa as part of its overseas food aid program, the farm ministry said Friday. Seoul plans to deliver 19,000 tons of rice to Yemen, 16,000 tons to Ethiopia, 10,000 tons to Kenya and 5,000 tons to Uganda through the World Food Program (WFP), according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. It marks South Korea's second rice aid to the famine-stricken countries. Last year, Seoul sent the same amount of rice. A ship carrying 19,000 tons of rice departed from the southwestern port of Mokpo for Yemen on Friday, which is slated to arrive in the Middle Eastern country next month. The first shipment of 150,000 tons left Ulsan on the southeast cost last Thursday, with a freighter carrying a second batch of 16,000 tons departing from the western port of Gunsan a week ago. Both ships are slated to arrive at their destinations late this month. The ministry said the rice to be sent was all harvested in 2017 and that the U.N. food agency will be in charge of maritime transportation and local distribution. Seoul and the WFP will jointly take charge of post-aid monitoring. South Korea started the rice aid program following its accession to the Food Assistance Convention, which aims to promote global food security and provide humanitarian food assistance to developing countries, in January last year. Seoul's overseas food aid program is expected to help ease its chronic glut of rice stemming from falling rice intake among Koreans, the ministry said. (END)

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