Viral food trends push up ingredient prices

People shop for spring cabbage at a traditional market in Seoul, March 4. Yonhap

After Dubai chewy cookies, a chocolate dessert stuffed with pistachio cream and crunchy kadayif pastry, took Korea’s social feeds by storm in late 2025, Kim Min-sun, an office worker in Seoul, decided to try making the treat herself.

“When I checked online for the ingredients, the prices were about 1.5 times what I remembered, and some were sold out with delivery taking up to two weeks,” Kim said. “So I gave up.”

She later attempted another viral dish, “bomdong bibimbap” (rice with seasoned spring cabbage). But after she brought the cabbage home, her mother, a more seasoned grocery shopper, pointed out that the price was higher than usual.

As viral food trends sweep across Korean social feeds and kitchens, the key ingredients behind those dishes have swung in price.

Primary ingredients for Dubai chewy cookies and bomdong bibimbap — dishes that spread rapidly through short-form videos in recent months — have recorded sharp price increases, according to the Korea Price Information (KPI), a price monitoring agency.

A customer holds Starbucks' Dubai chewy roll, inspired by the viral Dubai chewy cookie, at a store in central Seoul, Jan. 30. Yonhap

For Dubai chewy cookies, 500 grams of kadayif rose from 18,900 won ($12.63) to 31,800 won — a 68.3 percent jump. Pistachios saw a similar surge, with 400 grams climbing from 18,000 won to 24,000 won, up 33.3 percent, after the cookies went viral.

A similar pattern followed bomdong bibimbap. The price of the spring cabbage rose 33.3 percent, from 4,500 won per kilogram to 6,000 won.

The surge has not been limited to ingredients. Prices of the ready-made dishes themselves have also jumped sharply, rising anywhere from 50 percent to as much as 116.7 percent.

A comparable phenomenon was observed in 2023 with tanghulu, the sugar-coated fruit skewer that became hugely popular after going viral on TikTok and YouTube. As demand spiked, both the price of fruit used as the raw ingredient and the retail price of the snack climbed in tandem.

The spikes offer a glimpse into how quickly short-form video trends can ripple through the real economy. And the lifecycle of such online food crazes appears to be growing ever shorter. Even before the buzz around Dubai chewy cookies and bomdong bibimbap has fully faded, another social media-fueled hit — butter rice cakes, also known as butter mochi — is already gaining traction.

“As certain dishes spread rapidly through social media, demand for their ingredients becomes concentrated within a short period of time,” KPI researcher Lee Dong-hoon said. “This phenomenon can lead to sharp price increases and supply instability, thus increasing volatility in the market.”