Jensen Huang visits a samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, restaurant in Seoul on June 6.YONHAP
Tosokchon, the famed samgyetang restaurant in central Seoul that drew attention after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ate there with his family this month, charges 20,000 won ($13) for a basic bowl of the ginseng chicken soup. Korea Ginseng Samgyetang, a favorite of office workers around Jongno District, central Seoul, charges the same, and bowls with abalone or cultured wild ginseng cost well above that. With chobok — the first of the dog days of summer, when Koreans traditionally eat samgyetang to push through the heat — approaching, some now grumble that even a single bowl has become a luxury.
Both restaurant and grocery prices are flashing red this summer. An earlier-than-usual heat wave is unsettling the prices of farm and livestock goods, and a weak won is lifting the cost of imports on top of that. With more rain than usual and more heat in the forecast, summer prices look set to climb further.
Broiler chicken averaged 6,650 won per kilogram ($1.972 per pound) nationwide this month, up 19.4 percent from 5,568 won a year earlier, the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation said. The per-kilogram price was still in the 5,900 won range in February, then climbed through the 6,300 won range in March and the 6,500 won range in April and May before topping 6,600 won this month.
Prices for eggs, a grocery-basket staple, are rising just as fast. A pack of 10 extra-large eggs averaged 5,222 won at retail this month, up 38.6 percent from 3,786 won a year earlier — the first time the monthly average has cleared 5,000 won, or about 500 won an egg. A 30-egg tray topped 7,000 won, and some supermarkets are charging more than 9,000 won.
The surge in egg and chicken prices owes much to short supply. Highly pathogenic avian influenza — bird flu — that spread over the winter forced the culling of about 11.22 million laying hens, cutting egg output and squeezing chicken supply. As the strain on egg supply dragged on, Emart and Lotte Mart capped discounted-egg purchases at one tray per customer.
A customer looks at produce at a supermarket in Seoul in June 18.YONHAP
The early heat and the onset of boknal, the hottest days of summer, have also stoked demand for summer stamina dishes, adding to the pressure. Layered on top is what some call "heatflation," in which rising temperatures stunt crops and kill livestock, pushing prices higher.
Eggs and chicken are not the only items rattled by erratic weather; other produce and seafood are wobbling too. Korea Agricultural Marketing Information Service, the price-tracking service run by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, put green onions at 2,827 won per kilogram this month, up 18.4 percent from 2,388 won a year earlier. Red and green leaf lettuce averaged 1,023 and 1,024 won per 100 grams, climbing back above 1,000 won after dipping into the 800 to 900 won range last month. A whole watermelon, a summer staple, averaged 24,292 won, up 8.9 percent from 22,309 won a year earlier.
The weak won is pushing up imported food as well. Imported salted mackerel, a longtime dinner-table staple, jumped 26.5 percent to 10,803 won per pair this month from 8,541 won a year earlier.
Eggs are seen at a supermarket in Seoul on June 21.NEWS1
The bigger concern is that summer price pressure may only now be building. If the heat wave and monsoon overlap, poor harvests could drive farm prices higher still. Seoul's mid-June high normally runs 27 to 28 degrees Celsius (81 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit), but temperatures well above 30 degrees have already persisted this year. Southeastern and southwestern Seoul saw the summer's first heat-wave advisory on Thursday, 12 days earlier than last year's first, on June 30.
The government has begun lining up supply measures. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is releasing up to 8,000 tons of state-stockpiled seafood from May 20 through July 15. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has designated staples such as napa cabbage and radish for intensive management and plans to release a combined 34,000 tons of reserves immediately if needed. It will also import more than 30 million eggs and bring in 17 million hatching eggs in stages to meet rising summer demand.
"The government is responding with stockpile releases and wider imports, but production at the source is declining so fast under climate change that supply is unlikely to normalize in the short term," said Lee Eun-hee, an emeritus professor of consumer science at Inha University. She said July and August, when the full monsoon and the heat wave overlap, will be "the biggest watershed for grocery prices."
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
