SEOUL - Seoul will raise milk production quotas to reduce damage inflicted on dairy farms, caused by the culling of dairy cows due to the rampant spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Tuesday.

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The move calls for increases in production quotas of 5 percent for the next two years, to help boost supply and stabilize milk prices, the ministry said.

"We have controlled supply and demand for milk by assigning production quotas to each farm. But concerns about losses have been growing, as the number of dairy cows has been on the decline due to FMD and milk production is likely to be cut by 7 percent," the ministry said.

The ministry estimated total milk production for 2011 may reach 1.91 million tons, down 6.8 percent from last year.

The latest outbreak of FMD has forced South Korea to cull more than 2.1 million animals so far, including 134,735 heads of cattle.