Rice prices in South Korea dropped this year as local farmers had the bumper harvest for a second consecutive year thanks to the favorable weather, coupled with rising stockpiles, industry and government officials said Tuesday.

A record amount of 4.32 million tons of rice was cropped across the nation last year, and it is expected to be robust this year as well because the extended summer heat and absence of typhoon and flood helped increase rice production, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The government will conduct a nationwide survey of rice production on Thursday before releasing the result later this year.

The bumper harvest is surely good news, but it has inevitably dragged down the rice price in the market.

The price of rice was set at 137,152 won ($123.60) per 80 kg as of Sept. 5, down 14.3 percent from the same day a year earlier, said GS&J Institute, a local agricultural institute.

"We expect another bumper year comparable to 2015 under the current circumstances," Song Jae-won, a ministry official, said.

On top of the unprecedented rich harvest, the snowballing rice stockpiles are further putting strains on local farms. South Korea imports rice every year in accordance with the mandatory import quota set by the World Trade Organization.

The government's rice stock was estimated at 1.75 million tons as of June, adding 420,000 tons from June 2015 and more than double the appropriate stockpile recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

In light of the dropping rice prices, local farmers have called on the government to come up with measures to stabilize the market.

"The rice prices are plunging because the government is annually importing 400,000 tons of rice, which later become stockpiles," Park Ki-su, a member of the nationwide farmers association, said. "The government should stop importing rice and take actions to stabilize the rice price." (Yonhap)