The cost of preparing a Chuseok ancestral rite table is set to fall slightly from a year earlier. With fruit and seafood prices holding steady, the cost of buying ritual food items for a family of four has dropped to the 310,000 won range. It is the first year-on-year decline in ritual table costs since the Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations began surveying Chuseok ritual food prices five years ago.
The council's price monitoring center said on the 8th that it surveyed ritual food prices at 90 stores across Seoul's 25 districts — including department stores, large discount stores, supermarket-style superstores (SSM), neighborhood supermarkets and traditional markets — on the 3rd and 4th, about two weeks before Chuseok.
The average cost of ritual food items for a family of four came to 313,089 won this year. That is 7,281 won, or 2.3%, lower than the 320,370 won recorded in the first survey ahead of last year's Chuseok. Of the 23 items comparable with a year earlier, 14 fell in price.
By category, fruit posted the steepest drop at 7.3%. Seafood fell 6.8%, while other foods declined 3.5%, processed foods 2.5% and vegetables and forest products 2.3%. Livestock products rose 0.8%, roughly in line with last year.
Newly harvested pears fell 12.9% from a year earlier and new-crop apples dropped 8.7%, driving the stability in fruit prices. Among seafood, small yellow croaker plunged 24.5%. Ground pork also fell 13.7%. Government discount support for agricultural, livestock and fishery products, in place during the survey period, was seen as contributing to the declines in some items.
Apples and Pears Cheaper, but Bracken Up 12% and Beef Up 4.1%
Still, some items that frequently appear on ritual tables grew more expensive. The biggest increase came in boiled bracken, up 12.0% from a year earlier. Dried pollock rose 7.3% and peeled bellflower root 5.5%. Beef for skewers gained 4.1%, eggs 3.9% and beef for soup 3.0%.
Seafood prices also diverged sharply by item. While the seafood category as a whole fell 6.8%, dried pollock rose 7.3% and pollock fillet 3.0%. Small yellow croaker, by contrast, fell 24.5%, leading the overall decline in seafood prices.
Overall ritual table prices are lower than last year, but the burden shoppers actually feel is likely to vary by item. With prices rising for beef and seasoned vegetables — staples hard to leave off a ritual table — the drop in the overall average does not necessarily mean holiday grocery costs have eased significantly.
Beef Cheaper at Traditional Markets, Apples and Pears at Discount Stores
Prices also differed clearly by type of retailer. Livestock products and vegetables and forest products were 30.7% and 26.0% cheaper, respectively, at traditional markets than at large discount stores.
Domestic beef for skewers, for example, averaged 54,948 won for 600 grams at large discount stores but sold for 33,751 won at traditional markets — 21,197 won, or 38.6%, less. Beef for soup was 36.0% cheaper at traditional markets.
Domestic boiled bracken, at 400 grams, averaged 14,688 won at large discount stores, about 32.3% higher than the traditional market average of 11,100 won. Peeled bellflower root was about 22.2% cheaper at traditional markets.
Fruit and eggs, by contrast, were more competitively priced at large discount stores. Eggs cost 28.7% less than at traditional markets, while new-crop apples were 23.5% cheaper, newly harvested pears 19.2% and dried persimmons 16.0%.
This was the first survey, conducted about two weeks before Chuseok. Because ritual food prices tend to rise as the holiday approaches, actual shopping costs could change depending on price movements ahead.
The council's price monitoring center plans to conduct additional monitoring of ritual food prices one week before Chuseok and to keep tracking price changes in major items. The council advised consumers to compare discount offers across retailers and traditional market gift certificate rebates before buying.
