Ups and downs of Seoul's Majang Meat Market

The statue of a bull near the entrance to the Majang Meat Market in Majang-dong, Seoul, is seen Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Park Ji-won

• Published Jan 6, 2021 9:02 AM KST
• Updated Jan 6, 2021 11:23 PM KST

By Park Ji-won

Majang Meat Market is well-known among locals as Seoul's best place to buy and eat fresh meat at a reasonable price. In recent years, it has emerged as a popular spot for TV personalities and YouTubers as “mukbang” or eating shows became popular. It is the largest meat market in the country with 2 million annual visitors. The market accounts for over 60 percent of meat, especially beef, distribution in Korea.

“The market has grown along with the national economy. As people's income increased, the consumption of meat also increased,” Yoo Kwang-jun, head of a Korean beef co-op in Majang-dong, told The Korea Times. “When I first got a job here as a distributor about 36 years ago, it was very tough to work here. For example, the ground was just mud and was being used as cabbage fields back then. And the market smelled so bad that people had to wrap towels around their faces. But people gathered here to earn money for their families to raise their kids. It was all about money back then.”

He had been employed as a butcher for some 15 years before he started his own business.

The job, especially carving meat, however, was not a coveted occupation. People might have considered the job as one for lower-class people ― a cultural holdout from the Joseon period. In that period, people known as baekjeong a class of “untouchables,” were commonly butchers or carried out other work that the common Korean would not consider. Public perceptions of butchers have largely improved with societal shifts in post-war capitalist South Korea.

“People underestimated what we did about 30 years ago. They thought this job is for uneducated people. Our job has nothing to do with degrees, but it actually needs hard work and excellent knife skills. Butchers are basically craftsmen, who are asked to spend several years risking injury to deal with the carving of meat. The situation got much better because people started to make money out of the meat business in the money-first society. Now, educated people, the so-called second generation of butchers ― including my son who went to university ― who come to work in the industry, are breaking such prejudices and boundaries,” Yoo said.

“I would assume Korean butchers are the best at meat-carving skills. Basically, Koreans are good at making handicrafts. And butchers had to hone their skills because the animals are too valuable to be wasted,” a 31-year-old butcher surnamed Kim said.

Birth of Majang Meat Market

Cows have long been an integral part of Korean life. In the 1950s and 1960s, Korea was an agriculture-based country and cows were necessary for farming labor. There is a Korean saying “A cow will cover the full university tuition.” It shows the value of cows and that they were considered a sort of emergency relief fund.

There are some 3,000 butcher shops in the market, according to Yoo, 10 percent of which handle only beef. All kinds of meat are sold at the market's shops, including pork and chicken which are largely produced and distributed by government-run companies and big local food companies. Beef has been a product of independent small sellers because it doesn't require large capital ― just skilled butchers. The butchers who deal with beef are paid well.

But the place wasn't always a meat market. In the Joseon era, it was a place for horse riding. The area became a livestock market for selling cattle in 1958. Also a city government-run slaughterhouse was established there in 1961. Since the introduction of the auction system in 1974, the cattle market disappeared from Majang-dong and the slaughterhouse also disappeared in 1998 as residential buildings started to be built in that area.

After the slaughterhouse disappeared, butchers would buy slaughtered animals at auction and then bring them to the market for further cutting and re-selling to wholesalers and regular customers throughout the country.

The butcher's job is commonly considered men's work, but it was different in the 1980s.

“Back before the 1980s, not many women did the work of detaching bones from the carcasses because it is physically tough. But many women who were hired for administrative work ended up cutting meat to make extra money for their children's education. Some have 20 to 40 years of experience now. As far as I know, there is no young woman who does the same job as those older women now,” Kim said.

There have been tough times for Korea's beef industry. Shortly before the 1988 Seoul Olympics some sellers sold imported beef falsely labeled as “hanwoo” (domestic Korean beef) which resulted in a huge public outcry and a drastic drop in Korean beef consumption. Also, when news spread of mad cow disease as U.S. beef started to be imported in the 2000s, importers started to encounter business problems too. Other challenges include the emergence of hypermarkets and the ongoing fights against the large distribution channels run by the government which sets market prices.

But thanks to the skilled workers and growing economy, the market has managed to survive. The increase in the average per capita consumption of meat also backed the expansion. Meat consumption increased from 11.3 kilograms in 1980 to 53.9 kilograms in 2018. The annual consumption of beef marked a five-fold increase to 12.7 kilograms from 2.6 kilograms in the same period.

Also, with the changes in buying meat amid COVID-19, signs of changes are seen in the industry. More meat sellers are actively selling their products online and meeting online consumer demand. Recently, more young butchers started running YouTube channels and online stores promoting their products and the area the market is located in.

Still, industry workers hope that more people will visit the market and consider their occupation as a viable career choice.

“The meat market is always hiring people. There are various jobs here even though the unemployment rate is surging in the nation. It is a good place for anyone who wants to have a stable job and develop skills. We don't fire people because there is always a shortage of workers. You can work as long as you want and be paid well at the same time. It is an honorable job that makes you feel proud of yourself for taking charge of processing meat, which is a dietary staple.”