Volunteers make kimchi for the poor and socially disadvantaged at a welfare center in southern Seoul's Dongjak District, Wednesday. Yonhap
The season has come for Korean households to prepare kimchi that will last for winter, but the cost of making kimchi this year is about 20 percent higher than last year as the prices of napa cabbage, radishes and other major ingredients have gone up, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study conducted by Korea Price Research Center (KPRC) showed it costs 419,130 won ($300) on average for a family of four to buy the 15 ingredients for making kimchi at a traditional market as of Tuesday.
It added the cost was up 19.6 percent from the previous year.
At supermarkets, the cost totaled 521,440 won, marking a 20.5 percent year-on-year increase.
By region, the cost of making kimchi in Sejong was the highest at 456,680 won.
It cost the least to make kimchi in Gangwon Province with 385,760 won.
The KPRC assessed that the higher cost of making kimchi is driven by a more than 60 percent surge in the prices of napa cabbage and radishes — the two main ingredients.
The average price of napa cabbage went up 61.1 percent year-on-year and that of radishes jumped 65.9 percent.
In contrast, the average price of green onions went down 29.9 percent year-on-year, while that of ginger dropped 21.9 percent year-on-year and red pepper powder dropped by 7 percent.
The KPRC explained that climate change and less land to harvest vegetables for kimchi are pushing prices upward.
According to the Korea Rural Economic Institute, the total area of farmland dedicated to growing napa cabbage this summer shrank 5.3 percent from a year earlier due to heavy rainfall and an extended heat wave.
The government has come up with measures to bring down the prices of vegetables as well as kimchi as demand keeps rising ahead of winter.
On the regional governmental level, the Seoul Metropolitan Council asked Mayor Oh Se-hoon and budget administrators to take action to lower the prices of kimchi ingredients.