By Kim Tae-gyu
Amid the “vegetable crunch,” Korean people, a majority of whom reside in small apartments in metropolitan areas, are now trying their hand at growing their own vegetables.
The unusually long monsoon season, topped by two typhoons, devastated this year’s vegetable harvest and caused prices to soar to a record high here ― popular napa cabbage is priced at more than 15,000 won per head amid the unprecedented shortage.
On top of napa cabbage, the main ingredient of the country’s staple side dish kimchi, other farm produce has substantially appreciated such as radish, scallion and pumpkin.
This generates a new term of `vegeflation,’’ a combination of vegetable and inflation, which is similar to agflation, the generalized inflation headed by rises in agricultural commodity values.
``When the prices of napa cabbage rocketed in the past, citizens tended to compare kimchi with gold. Now, they compare kimchi to diamonds because napa cabbage is so expensive,’’ Seoul Agricultural Technology Center head Lee Han-ho said.
``In this climate, an increasing number of them want to tend vegetables on their own. Without a kitchen garden available in rural areas, city people can use the balconies of the apartment or the rooftop to do so.’’
Lee said such “self-gardening” or growing your own vegetables in pots, for instance, can become a substantive source of vegetables in a period of extreme shortage.
``In the case of lettuce, they grow for consumption within a month at home. For cabbage, it will take about one and a half to two months. Such a method is a viable option for apartment residents,’’ Lee said.
``Together with weekend farms, self-gardening could sprout up for the time being as the supply of napa cabbage is not likely to get back on track right away. The present mini-crisis might continue to next year.’’
The government has tried several measures to grapple with rising prices of farm products like temporarily waiving tariffs on cabbage and radishes imported from China until the end of this year.
``When industrial products are needed, our factories can churn out them instantly via mass production. But agricultural produce is different. We need time,’’ said a Seoul analyst who asked not to be named.
``Even if the government imports Chinese farm products, customers might not buy them since they are regarded as second-tier alternatives. The crisis may not come to an end this year and then more people are likely to grow their own vegetables.’’