An Analysis on the Characteristics of Rice Consumption in Korea

Rice has been the most important staple in Korea, but there has been experiencing the gradually decreasing in rice consumption. However, the consumption of multigrain rice such as brown rice, black rice and glutinous rice is increasing. It is widely known that eating multigrain rice is healthier than eating plain white rice. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers’ preferences concerning multigrain rice and plain white rice across consumers’ characteristics. A conditional logit model has been estimated for the purpose. The study uses individual consumer panel scanner data of Korea. The results find that the patterns of rice consumption across consumers’ social economic characteristics are different. Also, results reveal the cause of the decrease in rice consumption and implications regarding ways to increase rice consumption