January 28, 2011

South Korea remain watchful over rising meat prices

South Korea's meat prices are skyrocketing, after FMD hit the nation, triggering a severe meat supply shortage to customers ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.

The country's meat prices are now spiralling out of control. The price of poultry products are also surging due to cold weather and persistent avian flu.

The average wholesale price of pork meat jumped to a record KRW8,000 (US$7.17) per kilogramme as of January 25, just a week after it broke above the 7,000 mark. Retail prices showed a sharper rise especially in cuts of pork hind leg.

E-Mart, the nation's leading retailer, gave up its designation of pork belly as an all-time low price item and raised the price tag to KRW1,680 (US$1.51) per 100 grams from KRW1,380 (US$1.24)  in five days.

Chicken meat, eggs and duck also show an inexorable rise in prices. Chicken meat prices are 37% higher than a month earlier. Egg prices gained 12.8% from a month ago and 31.4% from a year ago.