The beloved national food of South Korea, kimchi, is produced with fermented cabbage or other vegetables, and factory workers there toil assiduously at a production line producing it.
Despite the commotion, though, South Korea’s kimchi producers are having trouble this year because of a shortage of cabbages brought on by climate change, which has caused prices to soar. Additionally hurting business are the less expensive products offered by Chinese rivals who don’t have a cabbage scarcity.
One such business, led by Ahn Ik-jin of kimchi manufacturer Cheongone Organic, finds it difficult to get enough cabbages because of the high cost. His factory’s storage spaces have almost all been vacated. To maintain production, Ahn has purchased some subpar cabbages. Still, he was forced to increase the price of the kimchi sold to other businesses by two-thirds, to 5,000 won ($3.50) per kilogramme.
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Local kimchi production in South Korea has been declining for a while. Over the past 20 years, Chinese imports, which are frequently priced at around a third of locally produced kimchi, have surged to take over 40% of the local market for commercially produced kimchi.
The industry has largely collapsed as a result of recent poor cabbage crops. According to a study by Korea Rating & Data, nearly half of South Korea’s 1,000 or so kimchi producers either shut down permanently or temporarily last year or reported no sales.
Korean kimchi producers are hoping that the government’s strategy will at the very least stop local suppliers from losing momentum.
“We used to produce 15 tonnes of kimchi a day but now we are only producing 10 tonnes or less,” he said. “We need measures for a smooth supply of good quality cabbages.”
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Such is the sense of crisis surrounding the spicy pickled side dish eaten daily by many Koreans and central to Korean identity. To help ease the situation, the government recently laid out plans to construct two massive cabbage storage facilities by 2025 with an investment of 58 billion won ($40 million).
At 9,900 square metres each, the facilities to be built in the rural counties of Goesan and Haenam will, combined, be equivalent to three soccer pitches in size.
The storage complexes will be able to store 10,000 tonnes of cabbages and pickle 50 tonnes of cabbages daily, said Lim Jeung-guen, deputy director of the agricultural ministry’s food industry promotion division, adding that more complexes could be built if the first two work out well.
Kimchi exports from the nation increased 10.7% to $160 million in 2017, riding a wave of interest in Korean culture sparked by things like the boy band BTS and the dystopian Netflix series “Squid Game.”
Domestically, meanwhile, there is growing worry that the lack of cabbage would also jeopardise the custom of “Kimjang,” or the preparation and sharing of kimchi among families, friends, and communities, which is frequently done in November but is not exclusively so.
(With inputs from agencies)
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