Rising food inflation causing Koreans to change eating habits

A housewife recently bought a fruit drying machine to feed her son dry fruit instead of snacks. “Snack prices range between 1,000 (94 cents) and 2,000 won (1.90 U.S. dollars) so I decided to make them myself,” she said.

Skyrocketing inflation is putting the squeeze on lower-income people, forcing them to change their eating habits. According to Shinsegae’s “E-mart index” released Monday, consumers were buying cheaper frozen food instead of more expensive refrigerated food while adding imported food to their dinner tables.

Shinsegae said its E-mart index was 100.3 in the second quarter, down from 103.3 a year earlier. The index analyzes sales of 476 items sold at 50 E-mart stores around the country.

A reading above 100 indicates that sales rose compared from a year ago, while that below 100 means sales decreased. The figure for this year’s second quarter shows sales remained largely unchanged from the same period last year.

In particular, the sub-index on food was 101.5, higher than 97.9 marked for spending on clothing, 98.5 for housing, and 100.4 for culture. While spending on food increased slightly, the types of purchased food saw a significant shift due to weather changes, food-and-mouth disease and price hikes.

The index for fresh mackerel spending was just 83.3 as fish catches plunged in the wake of changing water temperatures, but that for frozen mackerel surged to 212.2. The index for Korean pork was 77.3 as food-and-mouth disease caused prices to skyrocket, but that for imported pork surged to 737.8, meaning consumption of the meat rose seven-fold from a year ago.

Surging vegetable prices last year led to the expansion of planting areas this year and caused the prices to drop, making the index for cabbage spending rise to 143.3 and that for onions jump to 107.3.

Consumer spending on imported fruits also surged. The index for imported bananas was 108, avocado 130.7, mango 127.4 and cherries 167.4, all rising sharply from a year earlier.

When the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry surveyed 1,500 consumers nationwide in February, more than half said they preferred domestically produced food though they cost more than imports. Within a few months, rising inflation has caused consumers to buy more imported food.

The index for snack products, the prices of which have been raised by confectionary companies by changing their names, dropped to 94.6 from 105.5, while that for ice cream also plunged to 91.4 from 97.7.

Confectionary and ice cream makers raised their retail prices up to 25 percent in April and May due to inflation of raw materials, including sugar and flour.

wiseweb@donga.com