Cabbage Prices Skyrocketing In Asia

Nuclear threats from neighbors to the north, Sino-American tensions and the pandemic. Now South Koreans are facing a crisis like never before: a shortage of kimchi.

A summer of landslides, foods and typhoons have caused major damage to fields of Napa, the Chinese cabbage from which the spicy, crunchy staple kimchi is derived. Prices are up about 60% so far this year and the shortage comes just before the traditional season when Koreans head to the kitchen to make their fermented blends.

“Cabbage prices are going nuts,” Jung Mi-ae, a mother of two, was quoted by The Japan Times as saying. “I had to rub my eyes to see the price tag again because it didn’t make any sense.”

UNESCO, the UN’s cultural organization, added the communal act of kimjang, the making of kimchi, to its list of intangible cultural heritages in 2013. Annually, South Koreans eat something like 2 million tons of the stuff every year. The government estimates 95% of all Koreans eat it at least once per day and more than 60% have it for three squares.

Kim Dajung, a research fellow at the Korea Rural Economic Institute, told the Times that cabbage crops are particularly vulnerable.

“Cabbage in particular is quite sensitive to climate change, and any sort of extreme weather will be detrimental to its output,” he said.

The South Korean government expects the market to stabilize in coming months, though prices will remain elevated for the time being.