South Korean Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Food visits Africa...All efforts are being made to expand the ”K-Rice Belt”

Jeong Hwan-geun, the South Korean Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, and Food, is visiting countries along the Atlantic coast of West Africa as a special envoy of the South Korean president.
We are putting all our efforts into expanding our business. According to the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Food (Ministry) on the 20th, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Food Chung was in Cote d'Ivoire on the 19th (local time) to open the Covenant-Adjumani agricultural region.
We met with the Minister of Food Production and signed a ``K-Riceveld MOU (Memorandum of Understanding)''. This will provide Korean seeds and agricultural technology to the K-Rice Co., Ltd., which will help increase rice production in Africa.
The number of countries where ``Belt'' operates has increased to 10 countries. Ivory Coast is the first country in Africa with which South Korea had diplomatic relations, starting in 1961. Although the country has a land area more than three times that of South Korea, the production of rice is limited.
Production volume is less than 50% of consumption, and the country spends approximately 900 billion won (approximately 99.689 billion yen) annually on rice imports.
Prior to this, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Food Chung visited Sierra Leone on the 16th of this month.
He met with President Julius Maada Bio, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, and increased the number of participating countries in the K-Rice Belt project to nine. Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, and Food Chung said, ``Korea is focusing on agriculture, but also on technology and
"We will cooperate with Sierra Leone in various areas such as people-to-people exchanges," and asked for support for the "2030 Busan International Expo."