Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Korean Food Prices Among World's Highest
An official with Consumers in Korea said, "The price of Australian beef in Korea is twice as expensive than it is in Japan. The government should diversify the import origins and deal with high tariffs on beef." Prices of other food and commodities in Korea are also comparatively high. The consumer group said Korea ranked among the top five most expensive countries in eleven categories out of twenty. The price of rice per kilo was W2,700 won, the fourth highest after Japan at W3,708, Belgium at W3,529 and Brazil at W2,946.
Chosun Ilbo (March 16, 2007)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703160021.html

[DannyOKC]

The price of rice here, in a grocery store, is still a shock to me.

[newintown]

absolutely, i was shocked by the price of rice - the country's staple. i guess korean people don't know any different, but i can't get my head round why something which is produced locally costs 10 times as much as it does back in blighty.
cost of fruit is ridiculous too.
swings & roundabouts though, eating out & buying alcohol in supermarkets is well cheap, so balances out really.

[RACETRAITOR]

Comes as a shock to me.

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

I'm far from a highly-paid teacher, but I don't even notice the dent rice puts on my bankbook.

That oi kimchi is pretty dear in the winter time, yo.

[Fat Sam]

[Dev]

[DCJames]

If you want to each fresh fruits and vegetables here regularly, you'll be a healthy, but poor person.

[tzechuk]

Which is why it makes almost no difference to eat out or cook at home. Cost about the same.

[cdninkorea]

[Saxiif]

In many cases its not so much price gouging as trade regulations. But at least those are getting better (slowly).

Also if you're shopping at places like Home Plus you really shouldn't complain about prices, there are MUCH MUCH cheaper places to buy food. Street market prices are usually about 1/3 less than grocery store prices (and even less when things are in season) little ghetto no-name grocery stores are also pretty cheap.

[cangel]

WTF? I just moved to Korea 3 weeks ago after 6 years in Japan and I find Korea to be quite reasonable when compared to Japan. I don't know where you guys are going in Japan (I was in Fukuoka) but Japan is MUCH more expensive in most products than Korea. Maybe you guys and the reports are looking at Tokyo and Osaka, which are takai (expensive) but they are not respresentative of all Japan. I can't believe how cheap food is in Korea... Even beef! If you buy cr@p beef in Japan it is reasonably priced but famous meat like Kobe and Matsuzaka can be 40-60 USD per 100g... Anyway, enjoy EZ street here in Korea. It's not THAT expensive.

[oneofthesarahs]

I'm actually a little surprised by this information, too. Maybe it's just because I live in a small town, but I spend very little money on food. Much, much less than I spent on average in the United States. My local little grocery store is really cheap, and I buy a lot of food on market day, too. I once bought 4 large crabs for 10,000 won, which would be ridiculously cheap back home. But then again, I don't go out of my way to eat meat, so that makes a big reduction in my grocery bills.

[eamo]

Most foods are much more expensive in Korea than in the U.K. But, on the other hand, just about everything is much more expensive in the U.K. than Korea.

It's just food that's over-priced in Korea.

There's a lot of politics and nationalism in the Korean food market. IMO, a lot of the overpricing of food comes from Korea's over-protection of it's farmers and a big price-fixing scam by the chaebols.

[butlerian]