Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nekopanchi113]

I was just wondering how bad the inflation has become in Korea. Food costs in particular have increased a lot over the past couple years in America. Pasta for example has increased about 500 percent. Have the prices in Korea increased a lot recently as well?

[eamo]

Yes. Especially quality fruit and veg.

Fruit and veg in Korea ranges from 50% to 100% more expensive than my home country, UK. So, it must seem incredibly expensive to someone from the US where food is so cheap.

[RMNC]

I still get confused when people say that they are hurting over the food prices in Korea. You can't throw a rock in this country without hitting a farmer's market with dirt-cheap (and sometimes dirt-covered) organic, unbelievably fresh produce.

[Swampfox10mm]

[RMNC]

Yellow dust makes a delicious seasoning!

[chungbukdo]

BoK is devaluing the won in unison with the USD to protect their politically connected chaebol exporters.

That's the idea at least, according to those in the government who erroneously believe that a weak currency will make you better off.

It turns out though that Korea is not so resource rich, so the devaluation of the currency doesn't help when these companies have to import copper, oil, silver, etc. I have some friends at a few Korean companies on the verge of bankruptcy due to rising copper prices.

As far as food prices go, Korea could easily open up its borders to other countries. You pay huge amounts of taxes on all the food you get at the store and the levels are all hidden because they're charged as import tarriffs when they move into the country. Sometimes you'll even pay something like a 200% tax on Chinese garlic. You pay a 30% tax on Canadian pork. This is so the government can protect one of the most inefficient and wasteful farming industries in the world, which uses the most fertilizer per square meter and the productivity per unit of labour is extremely poor (probably because all of these Koreans farmers are about 80).