Families Overcome Cabbage Price Hike in Korea
[www.ntdtv.com 2011-01-06 10:39]
Far away from Korea’s crowded cities, small farming communities like this one in Hapcheon County have enjoyed their yearly kimchi making tradition – despite the recent price hike in cabbages. Youn Sunja and her family have gathered to make the spicy cabbage dish with renewed enthusiasm this year, knowing that they’ll eat well without having to worry about the cost.
Youn Sunja’s son Cho Younggwan helped deliver about 1 ton of cabbages to his mother’s place.
[Cho Younggwan, Sunja’s Son]:
“I delivered the cabbages and fed the leftover leaves to her cows but my mother has done almost all of the work. I only helped out a bit.”
They will make enough kimchi for the whole family to eat for the entire year.
[Youn Sunja, Hapcheon Resident]:
“I have three daughters in law, 1 daughter, 2 younger siblings. So I farmed for many and that makes it fun.”
With kimchi eaten as a side dish in Korea for almost every meal, we’re talking about a lot of cabbages.
[Youn Sunja, Hapcheon Resident]:
“In total there are 600 cabbages.”
Neighbors in this small town pitch in to help each other during the rigorous kimchi-making season.
[Jong Jungja, Sunja’s Daughter in Law]:
“I can get a lot of our staple food [from Sunja] so I don’t need to worry about chemicals in our food.”
But underscoring the growing price of kimchi lies a more serious problem.
The younger generations have been exiting rural areas at an alarming rate for decades.
Very few young people remain in the village today and a shortage of labor will likely result in a steady increase in the price of cabbages into the foreseeable future.
The spicy fermented cabbage dish is eaten in copious amounts in Korea, for almost every meal.
NTD News Hapcheon, South Korea.