South Korean government announced on Thursday its plan to build up the country's food production sector into a 150 trillion won (US$107 billion) industry by 2012 through better quality control and exports.

Food and Agriculture Minister Chang Tae-pyong said the master plan calls for 7 percent annual growth in sales until the target year.

If the plan is successfully implemented, the market size will also increase to 100 trillion won (US$71.3 billion), double the size of 50 trillion (US$35.6 billion) tallied for 2006, he said.

To achieve such growth, the government will allocate a total of5 trillion won (US$3.6 billion) over the next five years, 1.2 trillion won (US$0.9 billion) through subsidies and 3.8 trillion won (US$2.7 billion) through loans.

Chang pointed out that considering the overall global market size of US$4 trillion, the food sector has a huge potential for growing South Korean companies which are currently small in size.

"The industry as a whole is larger than both the global auto and information technology industry and can be a value-added business that exceeds profits generated by the making of semiconductors," the minister claimed.

Chang said that this plan can help the South Korean government to create 150,000 more jobs and expand exports from US$3.8 billion in 2007 to US$10.0 billion by the end of 2012.

He added that the growth of food industry could also help country's 42 trillion won (US$29.6 billion) agriculture market, which is currently facing challenges from cheaper imports.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2008)