It’s interesting to me that I’ve been seeing a lot of stories in the press lately about the high price of food here. I can’t help but wonder about the timing, as South Korea and the United States continue a sometimes contentious effort at nailing down a free-trade agreement.
From Friday’s Chosun Ilbo:
Koreans pay more for their beef than residents of any other country. A private organization called Consumers in Korea released on Thursday a survey of the prices of 20 major commodities conducted earlier this month by consumer groups in 29 countries. The results showed that the price of domestic and imported beef in Korea is the highest.
Prices of other food and commodities in Korea are also comparatively high. The consumer group said Korea ranked among the top five most expensive countries in eleven categories out of twenty.
U.S. beef imports have been a major sticking point in the ongoing FTA negotiations. But, as the article points out, the food-price disparities don’t end there. According to this speech last year by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow to the Korean Importers Association, Koreans pay up to 10 times more for agricultural products than the average international consumer.
Added to high housing and fuel prices, the situation is particularly acute in the nation’s capital, as I’ve mentioned before, and as pointed out in this editorial in the Korea Times.
It is serious indeed that prices in Seoul for the three basic necessities of life _ food, clothing and housing _ are more than double those of New York, while the per capita income of Seoulites is less than half of New Yorkers. The rapidly strengthening Korean currency is one reason. But there are other structural problems, too.
[snip]
Food prices, particularly meat prices, are two to four times higher here than in the U.S.
This can be attributed directly to restrictions on the import of foreign agricultural products, high tariffs on what is imported, and government support for Korean farmers, many of whom work small plots, and use older, less-efficient farming methods. This makes food production more expensive, with higher prices passed on to consumers.
As an urban consumer in Seoul—one who was previously accustomed to the cheap, plentiful and diverse foods available in a U.S. supermarket—the contrast is stark.
“We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It’s like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move, we are punished by being made to stand still for longer … We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission … If they ask for overtime we must do it. After working 15 hours until 11:30 p.m., we feel so tired.”
