Local grocery store prices are soaring.

As people are choosing to cook meals at home more during the pandemic, demand for groceries is skyrocketing.

However, with the low production of crops this year due to unfavorable weather conditions and also with the outbreak of animal diseases around the nation, grocery prices have increased dramatically.

Mike Laidman reports.





A shopper hesitates before putting these apples back where they were.

Demand for apples and pears is increasing with the Lunar New Year coming soon.

But fruit supplies all around the country have decreased due to unfavorable weather conditions last year, leaving consumers with no choice but to pay a hefty price should they want certain foods.


The average retail price of a bag of ten apples is between 33,000 and 34,000 won at local traditional markets. That’s 66 percent higher when compared with prices last year.
Pears, too, have skyrocketed, by about 35 percent.


Meat and egg prices are also going up due to the outbreak of some animal diseases.

African swine fever and avian flu mean that meat supplies are down, but demand for meat is up, due to more people cooking at home amid COVID-19 restrictions.


Beef prices have increased 9 percent from 2020 prices, pork by 10 percent, and eggs, 30 percent.

But it’s not only fruits and meats seeing these price hikes. It's much the same story for vegetables.

Back-to-back cold spells this winter caused frost damage, killing crops and leading to the current situation.

But despite this, prices of Chinese cabbage, radishes, and carrots are comparatively stable.


Conversely, prices of white onions are up 27 percent, and tomatoes, 17 percent.

These steep increases in common household foods are burdening homes.

According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, this year’s Lunar New Year ritual would cost roughly 263,000 won if a consumer shopped at a traditional market, and about 362,000 won at a big supermarket - prices that are 14 percent higher than last year.

Already stung by a year of COVID-19 distress, households across the country are now feeling the effects of soaring essential food prices.

Mike Laidman, KCTV