“It was a national dish, but it was close to 30,000 won.”
“The feeling of scorching inflation in Korea”
The appearance of Korean consumers doing an ‘open run’ at a large mart to buy 6,990 won chicken was introduced to the American media CNN.
On the 16th (local time), CNN reported, “The price of chicken is to the point of breaking through the 30,000 won range as the aftermath of the inflation hit Korea’s representative common food, chicken.”
In a video released by CNN, a scene of ‘open run’ running to a chicken store at the same time as opening to buy 6,990 won chicken at a large domestic supermarket was included.
The price of fried chicken was around 15,000 won a few years ago, but now it is in the 30,000 won range due to inflation. CNN explained that selling chicken at less than half the price is why consumers flock to it. CNN reported that “a hypermarket sold 60,000 chickens for a week with an event featuring chicken that is almost 50% cheaper.”
According to market research firm Euromonitor, domestic chicken restaurants earned $7.9 billion in revenue last year, the third highest after the United States and China. In the ‘August Consumer Price Trend’ announced by the Korean government, the price of chicken increased by 11.4% compared to the same period of the previous year, and the price increase was larger than that of other restaurants such as kimchi stew or sashimi.
The sharp rise in chicken prices is due to the sharp rise in raw material prices such as wheat and sunflower oil in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war. “The retail price of chicken has risen more than 50 percent over the past two years,” said Park Jeong-woo, an economist at Nomura Securities, in a statement to CNN. He added, “The price of chicken meat has soared, as well as the cost of oil, labor, delivery, and store rent.
Shin Hyun-ah, reporter at Hankyung.com [email protected]