Vegetables up 14.7% from last year; apple prices hold steady
The cost of preparing a Chuseok ritual table this year rose about 5 percent from last year, driven by surging vegetable prices after a summer of heat waves and frequent rain.
The Seoul Agricultural and Marine Products Corporation surveyed the cost of 34 key Chuseok items for a family of six at 25 outlets — including 16 traditional markets, eight hypermarkets and Garakmal — on Sept. 9, and found that the average cost across the three retail channels rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier.
Among the retail channels, Garakmal was the cheapest at 228,000 won ($167), followed by traditional markets at 245,051 won and hypermarkets at 290,711 won. Compared with last year, prices at traditional markets rose 3.5 percent and at Garakmal 5.6 percent, while hypermarkets posted the steepest increase at 6.0 percent.
Vegetables led the price surge, rising an average of 14.7 percent from a year earlier. Zucchini jumped 43.8 percent, radish 24.9 percent and bellflower root 23.0 percent. Baby napa cabbage, where supply increased, fell 9.6 percent, and green onions dropped 2.0 percent.
Meat and seafood also climbed. Meat prices rose an average of 7.4 percent, with pork up 18.5 percent and beef for soup up 10.5 percent. Seafood gained 6.2 percent, with frozen pollock fillet jumping 20.1 percent and dried pollock 10.8 percent. Croaker, for which the government released stockpiled supplies, fell 6.4 percent.
Fruit prices were stable. Apple prices were little changed from last year, while dried persimmons fell 12.0 percent and jujubes 14.5 percent.
Prices varied by outlet. Traditional markets were relatively cheaper for wild greens, seafood, beef and chicken than hypermarkets. Hypermarkets offered lower prices on some processed and packaged goods such as songpyeon rice cakes, dasik confections, imitation crab and eggs. Garakmal was comparatively affordable for vegetables, pork and chicken.
siuu@heraldcorp.com
