By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
It's hard to find any South Korean who doesn't confess to a love for pork belly, the delightfully fatty, chewy cuts that glorify the palate.
However, as credit-crunched consumers reel in their meat budget and look for inexpensive alternatives, they are more than willing to accept the fact that the hog has other parts as well.
Not long ago, it would have been hard to imagine that pork bellies, often referred to here as the poor man's prime meat, would ever become too expensive to the point where food-lovers consider replacing them with cheaper meat.
Although recent sales figures by retailers confirm that the belly still reigns supreme in pork, other cuts such as chuck rolls and leg meat are also catching up in popularity.
Cuts of pork belly, called ``samgyeopsal'' here, were priced at 1,770 won (about $1.3) per 100 grams in Shingsegae E-Mart superstores in February. However, prices rose to 2,050 won in March and now are around 2,230 won, which represents a 20 percent increase from the same period last year, the retailer said.
The steep rise in prices represents the increasing overall demand for pork, as more consumers take beef off their shopping lists, with less money to spend.
Local consumers' excessive desire for pork belly, as well as farmers being burned with rising feed costs due to the sliding value of the Korean won, also seem to have contributed to the bump in prices.
However, compared to the cut, the price hike hasn't been dramatic for other types of pork. E-Mart currently sells pork sirloin at about 1,190 won per 100 grams, while the price is 1,150 won for front-leg meat and 910 won for hind-leg meat.
Chuck rolls are priced at 2,000 won per 100 grams at E-Mart stores.
The sales of pork bellies rose by 25.5 percent year-on-year in January, and about 19 percent for both February and March, E-Mart said. In comparison, the sales of chuck rolls rose by nearly 43 percent year-on-year in March, while sirloin sales jumped by more than 50 percent during the same period.
The sales of front-leg meat jumped by more than 53 percent year-on-year in March, E-Mart officials said.
Other retailers like Lotte Mart and Home Plus are experiencing similar trends. Home Plus said its pork belly sales rose by 15 percent year-on-year in March, but the sales of other pork cuts rose by more than 54 percent during the same period.
``The price will likely remain above 2,000 won per 100 grams, so I think consumers will continue to look for alternatives in other cuts,'' said an E-Mart spokesman.