Days of torrential rains and subsequent high temperatures have taken a heavy toll on South Korea's livestock industry, triggering a sharp rise in food prices.

In Sunchang County in the country's North Jeolla Province, a 2,200-square-meter chicken farm with 38,000 broiler chickens was seriously destroyed by the flood.

The farm's manager said that these broiler chickens were originally planned to be sold to a processing factory next month. However, all the chickens were killed by the flood.

"The farm has suffered at least 40 million Korean won (about 29,180 U.S. dollars) in losses. The equipment has also malfunctioned due to flooding, which is also a loss. Moreover, after being flooded like this, we cannot raise chickens again within 40 to 50 days because we need to carry out epidemic prevention, disinfection, and pest control. We are facing multiple losses," said chicken farm manager Kwon Seong-taek.

According to data from the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, five consecutive days of heavy rains have caused the death of 1.78 million poultry and livestock nationwide, which is 1.8 times the damage caused by the rainy season last year.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety also said on Thursday morning that as of Tuesday, more than 1.02 million poultry and livestock had died due to high temperatures this year, which is 13 times of that in the same period of last year.

Under multiple influences, the current wholesale price of chicken in South Korea went up nearly 20 percent year on year. The prices of pork and beef fluctuated slightly, and the prices of many vegetables and fruits also rose sharply.

The producer price index, a key indicator of consumer inflation, increased by 0.1 percent in June from the previous month, reaching 119.77, marking the first monthly rise since March.

In addition, the country's 12 auto insurance companies said Wednesday that they had received reports of 3,874 cars being flooded, and estimated the scale of losses to be 38.86 billion won.

Source - https://www.bastillepost.com