Food Price Growth Hits 11-Year High

By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Shoppers, brace for higher prices at the grocery store. That is if you haven't yet seen the prices of daily essentials spiral out of control to record highs.

Everything from milk, chicken and bananas to fish has soared by almost 10 percent on average this year alone, the highest in 11 years, according to the Bank of Korea and the National Statistical Office, Wednesday.

The across-the-board increase is making life tougher for cash-crunched consumers.

Dozens of everyday items have seen their prices run up far more than the average hike.

Among goods that have seen the steepest price rises are oranges, which saw a 39.3-percent jump this year, followed by chicken (28.2 percent), ketchup (24.4 percent), ice cream (21 percent), sausages (20.4 percent), sesame oil (20.2 percent) and dried fish (19.5 percent), government data shows.

The item that saw the biggest price hike was ginger, which gained 92.6 percent this year.

South Korea's soaring food prices stand out among 30 OECD member countries, as a recent report showed that grocery shopping here is the second-most expensive, following Iceland.

``We're witnessing a drastic mark up because of seasonal factors such as the drought early this year and the subsequent rise in agricultural product prices,'' said a central bank official.

Experts say that the high-flying prices will most likely continue through this year until next year as global raw material costs are on their way up.

``The heightening inflation is dampening consumer sentiment ahead of Chuseok,'' said Lim Eun-kyung of Seoul YMCA's consumer group.

The Lee Myung-bak administration said earlier this week that it would try to keep prices affordable for consumers shopping for Korean Thanksgiving Day, which falls on Oct. 3.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr