 |
| Side dishes served at a restaurant in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province / Korea Times file |
By Kim Jae-heun
A 32-year-old office worker surnamed Jang is surprised at how many restaurants near his company have been reducing the number of side dishes they offer.
"I used to get three or four side dishes before, but these days, I only get one or two. One restaurant owner said he didn't want to raise the price, so he had to cut back on side dishes instead," said Jang who lives in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
A 34-year-old restaurant owner surnamed Kim has already received quite a few complaints from his customers after reducing the amount of corn salad he serves as a complimentary side dish.
"I used to give plenty of corn salad before, but I had to cut the amount by half because the price of corn had doubled recently. I want to give more too, but there is nothing I can do about food inflation," said Kim who runs the eatery in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
Like Kim, many restaurateurs are facing increasingly unfavorable business conditions. On top of soaring energy costs and wages, droughts and cold waves have adversely affected the harvest of local vegetables and inflated their prices.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said a severe drought last spring in Muan, South Jeolla Province, sharply dropped the production of local onions.
The ministry further attributed the price hike of green onions, cucumbers and peppers to a cold wave that hit the country in January, decreasing production amid soaring energy prices.
The average wholesale price of onions was 27,640 won ($21.08) per 15 kilograms as of March 10. This went up by three times from the previous year's 8,808 won in the same period, according to data from Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation revealed on Monday.
The situation is the same for other vegetables.
The wholesale price of carrots soared from 23,904 won per 20 kilograms last March to 58,040 won, up by 143 percent. The wholesale price of green onions also increased 30 percent to a record 2,740 won per kilogram compared to 2,065 won last year.
"All the small restaurant owners are going to go out of business if the food ingredient inflation continues," Kim said.
![[INTERVIEW] Virtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/bcc387606cf7451c94f51a5978960c9f.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] 'Cobweb' director questions meaning of cinema](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/a029c9ea411f4aef94c6310f6a7c3c54.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Seoul's increased art market momentum brings Sotheby's back to Korea](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/3439cc1e2d744b85ab81fdcf6f045ba5.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
