How Korea handles holiday inflation

A woman shops for groceries in Seoul, where officials are releasing record food stockpiles to fight inflation ahead of the Chuseok holiday season. Yonhap

Every autumn, South Korea gears up for Chuseok, a holiday as central to Koreans as Thanksgiving is in the U.S. Families gather, ancestral rites are held and dining tables overflow with meat, fruit and traditional dishes.

But the season also throws a familiar problem: food prices soar just as households are preparing for one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year.

This year, the government is stepping in with officials saying Friday that they will release a record 172,000 tons of food reserves to keep costs under control, the largest holiday stock program the country has ever attempted.

The plan was signed off on by First Vice Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il, underscoring Seoul’s determination to ease pressure on household budgets.

The measures go beyond routine stockpiles. Premium Korean beef, known as “hanwoo,” will nearly double in supply this month compared to the average Chuseok season, while pork distribution will rise to 6.5 tons, about 30 percent above usual volume. Eggs and other daily staples will also be made more widely available, and shoppers can expect discounts of up to 50 percent on popular holiday gift sets, which often include popular items such as Spam canned meat and shampoo.

For the government, the strategy is as much about confidence as it is about calories. By flooding the market at just the right moment, policymakers hope to blunt inflation’s sting during a season when family gatherings happen the most.